Dow Falls Below 10,000; Down 800 at One Point

Mike Ryan, the head of wealth management research for the Americas at UBS, said today's sell-offs weren't entirely voluntary. In some cases, he said, they were forced by margin calls -- demands by brokers that investors deposit money or sell assets once the value of their investments dropped below a certain level.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell by 800 points in the mid-afternoon before rebounding later on.

Ryan said that the margin calls "are part and parcel in the process of unwinding and deleveraging," or cutting down on the use of debts in financing investments.

The deleveraging happening now, he said, will take time and will continue to be a drag on the economy.

Ryan said that current market conditions make it more likely that the Federal Reserve will once again cut the key federal funds rate.

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Given falling oil and agricultural prices, he said, inflation risks are receding.

The U.S. and other countries, so far, have taken a "parochial approach" to addressing the financial crisis by addressing it on a "local level," Ryan said.

"The approach is almost exclusively done on a country-by-country, event-by-event basis," he said.

Ryan said that, instead, the world's richest countries should be working together to address the financial crisis with a "global approach."

That should include, he said, but not be limited to, a coordinated effort to cut rates by the different central banks, including the European Central Bank, which has yet to cut rates recently because of inflation concerns.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.