Through Dec. 30, the Dow's performance for 2008 is a loss of 34.7%. The two other years in which the Dow did worse than that were 1907, when the index lost 37.7%, and 1931, when the Dow lost 52.7%. (It's conceivable, of course, that 1907's loss could end up being eclipsed by 2008, if there's a big enough loss on Wednesday, the last trading day of the year. The 1931 record, however, appears safe.) Might there be a silver lining in these historical statistics? Does the stock market tend to bounce back after losses as big as 2008's? Unfortunately not.