It took 6 years for the dow to get back to Clinton's high. Pathetic!

[Quixote1818]

I am so sick of hearing how the Dow is at a "record high" and this being spun as proof that our economy is "on fire". Bull Shit! We basically treaded water for six years just to get back to what the dow was at under Clinton. That is a pathetic performance!

[unblock]

1. real total return is still negative

adjust for dividends and inflation and it's a negative return.

pathetic indeed!

[dogman]

2. Over 20% loss in value.

At 3%+ inflation over 6 years, those who were not able to put more money in, like pensioners on a fixed income, could not take advantage of cost averaging and suffered losses they could not recover. Money they took out to cover living expenses did not return to original value. This is the beauty of the capitalist system, the government does not redistribute wealth, the wealthy redistribute the saved wealth of regular people to their own pockets and under bushco, they were able to keep more of it from taxes with less work.

[Quixote1818]

8. Thats a great point! You are absolutly right! nt

[PerfectSage]

3. Just so ya know

The NYSE composite index has been above it's 2000 high for a year or so, but the Naz is still way below it's 2000 high. The NYSE just broke the spring high today after a nasty correction this spring. The Naz is a couple days away from brand new 52 week highs.

http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=&p=D&yr=10&mn=0&dy=0&i...

As far as I can tell the markets are in all probabilty the last leg of a bull market that started in Oct/2002. At this point in time my guess is: Spring or summer of 2007 the markets top and then the bear market shit hits the fan.

edit I can't link a nyse chart in: The 2000 high is 7,202. The nyse closed at 8,645 today. A lotta bears who thought "bear market starts in 2006" have gotten Foleyed since August. lol

[OneBlueSky]

4. took them that long to outsource enough jobs and . . .

rescind enough environmental regulations to make a difference . . .

[Selatius]

5. Watch out! Bush may piss it all away if he bombs Iran

I think we all know what 5/6/7/8 dollars/gallon of gas will do to the economy and how scared it would make investors on Wall Street.

[radfringe]

6. at the hospital yesterday:

my partner went in for carpal tunnel surgery yesterday (everything worked out fine)...

the tv was on a local station (not a FAUX affiliate) in the waiting room - the news was on... there were a few other people also in there.

a news story came on about the stock market, bush and the economy.

there was a group of 4 people near me, they knew each other and were generally catching up on each other's family news etc, the weather etc. Then the story came on.

one man snorted at the news about the DOW hitting a record "big deal, I'm not seeing any of that"

"tell me about it", a woman replied, "seems the higher the DOW goes, the less there is in my wallet, so much for trickle down"

From another man "yeah, we seem to be trickled-on."

woman: "what else does bush and the republicans have to talk about? They've made a mess out of everything else and now they are trying to put a smilie-face on the economy. I don't give a shit about the stock markets, all I know is that everything is costing more and it's harder to make ends meet. I'm really dreading to see what heating is going to cost this winter."

first man: Think the Democrats will do any better if they win?

2nd man: who knows, the stupid republicans haven't done anything to help - except fill their pockets with dirty money - the economy is great for them.

[LordLovesAWorkingMan]

7. Interesting to see if it could be adjusted for the tech bubble

A market supported by speculation on stocks of companies that sold dog food on the Internet is not a rational market. Still, the DJI didn't crash only because of the tech bubble...

[OllieLotte]

9. I learned a lot about investing from that market downturn.

I remember hearing things like "new peridium" , which means that history doesn't count. I also learned that small companies that never made a nickel could afford to advertise during the Super Bowl. I was pretty diversified. Except I had a lot of GE stock. Off course, "GE is one big mutual fund", so no worries. I knew better...but everything would be different this time. GE went from $60 to mid 20's.