In a sign that stocks have yet to bottom out, the Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday spiraled below 7,000 for the first time since 1997, a sign that investors around the world "appeared to be giving up hope and girding for a prolonged recession," The Wall Street Journal reports. There were few bright spots yesterday, save for numbers from the Goss Institute showing that the Business Conditions Index in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah recovered slightly from a record-low in January (via the Loveland Reporter-Herald). Yet the numbers ony mean that local economies are simply "retracting more slowly." A frightning report from the Center for Responsible Lending, meanwhile, anticipates more than 200,000 Colorado homeowners will face foreclosure by 2013, with more than 60,000 to come this year, according to The Colorado Independent. Should bankruptcy judges be allowed to rework loans? Congress is toying with that idea, reports Politico, but the moderates, including Representative Ed Perlmutter, have qualms, and aren't afraid to take on powerful House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.