The markets plunged to their lowest level in four years Monday and set a record for one-day point drop on the first full day of trading since President George W. Bush signed the $700 billion bailout package.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 325 points to close at $9,955.50, falling below the 10,000 level for the first time since 2004, following a volatile weekend overseas and new action to stem the financial crisis.

At one point the Dow was down 782 points, the largest one-day point drop in its history.

Oil dipped below $90 a barrel for the first time since February. Oil is considered a good barometer of the global economy because it's a good measure of business consumption.

Analysts say the sell-off comes as investors around the world are increasingly concerned that the federal bailout plan, which became law on Friday, will do little to stave off a deep global recession.

"When you got $100 billion in pork and you got a lot of people who are pessimistic about their approach, on how they went about it, I'm one that definitely is a pessimist right now," said a Wall Street worker. "I think you'll see the market hit 8,000 before it goes back to 11,000-12,000."

"A lot of people are frightened right now," said another. "I think that has to be priced into the market, and once that gets in there, I think we should have a short-term bounce."

According to a study released by the National Association for Business Economics, 69 percent of economists say a recession has already begun, or will this year. They expect it to last for at least a year.

A spokesperson for the group says there's a lot of pessimism because of the credit crunch and weak consumer spending.

"When it became evident by the middle of the year that this was a global trouble, then it became evident that the U.S. could not continue growing that way because the rest of the world was not going to keep up demand for U.S. enterprises," said Giullermo Calvo, a professor of economic and international affairs at Columbia University.

The survey was taken before Bush signed the bailout plan on Friday.

Stock exchanges in Asia, Germany and France all closed down Monday. Latin American stocks also dropped dramatically, led by a 15-percent drop in Brazilian shares.

Over the weekend, European leaders met in Paris to discuss the economic situation.

Bush's top advisors acknowledged Monday morning that the markets are still extremely volatile. But at a news conference in Texas, Bush said that the financial rescue plan will work – even if it takes some time.

The Federal Reserve said it is doubling its auctions of cash to banks to as much as $900 billion and is considering further steps to unfreeze short-term lending markets as the credit crunch deepens.

In a statement, officials with the central bank said they stand "ready to take additional measures as necessary to foster liquid money-market conditions."

The Fed also said it will begin paying interest on cash reserves banks hold at the central bank in a move the fed said would give it "greater scope" to address ailing credit markets.

Economists say they are pulling out all the stops in an effort to get cash flowing through the system again as money market rates are climbing worldwide amid the deepening credit crisis.

Sources also say that key Treasury Department official Neel Kashkari has been selected to head the rescue effort for financial institutions.

Kashkari, 35, is a former Goldman Sachs banker and is currently the Treasury's assistant secretary for international affairs.

The president's Working Group on Financial Markets – made up of leading financial officials – says it plans to quickly implement the rescue package.

Meanwhile, Congress is holding its first hearing into what caused the nation's financial markets to collapse last month.

The hearing, by the House Oversight and the Government Reform Committee, is focusing on Lehman Brothers, the giant investment bank that declared bankruptcy three weeks ago.

Congress heard that Lehman was steering million of dollars to departing executives while still pleading for a federal rescue last month.

Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, says Lehman's chief financial officer allocated $10 billion for year-end bonuses, stock buybacks, and dividend payments despite warnings of financial struggles.

He also chided the CFO for dismissing a suggestion from the bank's money management subsidiary that that executives go without bonuses.

"Before the Lehman bankruptcy, Treasury Secretary [Henry] Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman [Ben] Bernanke told us our financial system could handle the collapse of Lehman. It now appears they were wrong," said Waxman. "The repercussions of this collapse have reverberated across our economy."

The bank's collapse set off a the domino effect that led to last week's government bailout.