Just a quick followup to a recent post about Wall Street, because this is too good not to share.

I had lunch today with my wife at a place called Mongolian Barbecue in St. Louis. We finished our meal and cracked open our fortune cookies, and mine read as follows: "Don't worry about the stock market. Your investment is good."

So I have that going for me, which is nice.

Actually, we all have reason for a little optimism, according to this National Public Radio report. In it, Andy Kessler, a former analyst who now covers Wall Street as a reporter, says the Sept. 15 meltdown was ugly but not unprecedented -- and neither was the banking breakdown that sparked it.

"This happens every cycle," Kessler told NPR. "This is nothing new. I don't think we've entered a new era (similar to) the 1930s and the depression."

Kessler adds that this seems to be Wall Street's way of weeding out the badly managed companies.

• Listen to the rest of Kessler's interview here.

Kessler's opinion and others like it might bring relief to anxious investors. Do you agree? Is this just a temporary bump in the road or an ominous sign of more pain to come?