Investors were jarred by the potential for an earlier-than-expected end to the Fed's experimental bond-buying programs, known as quantitative easing.

WSJ: Stocks Extend Declines

But he can't help but feel jarred by the turns his career has taken, and by how much can change in two short, boring, maddening weeks.

WSJ: What It's Like When a Player Loses His Job

The possibility that such naivete could prove infectious is all the more troubling since even some European leaders who have preferred accommodation to confrontation when it came to terrorism and its sponsors appeared jarred by the Madrid bombings.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: A win for terror

The expulsion comes a week after Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin in the latest effort to patch up a relationship jarred by disputes over issues from European security and Mideast uprisings to human rights.

WSJ: Russia Expels U.S. Diplomat