The quarter's finally come within inches of its close, and we know who we have to blame for the searing, volatile ride we're about to finish:  our politicians.

Two days before the third quarter began, Larry Fink, the founder and CEO of asset management giant Blackrock, told CNBC that the US could no longer ignore its runaway budget and said that, if his accountants would let him, he would have 100 percent of his firm's holdings in stocks, given the low returns on bonds. "Anything earning 3 percent or lower is the dumbest thing you can do,” said Fink

When your company manages $3.7 trillion, the amount of income you generate is, needless to say, hugely important. Fink saw little benefit in owning bonds that yielded less than inflation.

The problem for those of us not managing trillions on long-term horizons is that if you increased your exposure to stocks -- and risk in general -- at the beginning of July, you would have just been better off sitting on the beach and parking your cash in a deposit account. If you were really lucky, you would've gone into the VIX.

Since the start of the third quarter, the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, or VIX, has traded 135.11 percent higher, gold is up 13.78 percent, and defensive stocks like S&P ies gained 8.37 percent higher. If you bought the S&P 500 or Dow, you are now sitting on double-digit losses. If you were in German or French stocks, you would have lost around a quarter of your money. Even Chinese stocks lost nearly 15 percent in just three months.