If you're a Merrill Lynch broker, you better be praying that none of your clients were watching CNBC between 2 and 3 p.m. this afternoon.

Anyone who saw the Dow freefall 7% in a matter of minutes is going to require some convincing to hang onto any stocks. The Dow's intraday drop of 998 points was its largest ever one-day point decline.

The early talk is that it was a trading error at Citi that got the panic going. Poor guy. He'll be unemployed and in front of Carl Levin's committee within a week. Then again, he works at a state-owned bank, so at least he'll be better treated than Goldman Sachs' "Fabulous" Fabrice Tourre.

Of course, it's not just one guy's fault. A panic is a collective undertaking and today there were plenty of reasons to freak out: the rioting in Athens, the impending collapse of the euro, more financial regulations down in D.C.

But please, why make excuses? Why do we pretend that people are in control, when they're really not? The machines are.