Dow at 36,000

[JackRiddler]

1999:

[marmar]

1. Hallucinogenic drugs obviously readily available in the streets.....

:smoke:

[Chimichurri]

2. I remember that book! Oddly enough, these folks are still being

paid for their "advice". They should be laughed out of the conference rooms.

[JackRiddler]

5. That's not a mistake. Bullshit always sells better than truth...

Stupidity is too easy an excuse, and removes the moral dimension. Not that you're doing that, but consider that they may not care about the value of their methodology. They aren't stupid and are presumably able to distinguish right from wrong.

In American culture, many are conditioned to reply to comments like yours as follows: "If they're morons, why did they make so much money?" Or, worse: "They met a market need for self-delusion, good for them. I would have done the same, and lifted some cash from the pockets of the real morons, the people who want to read wishful thinking." These guys are still rewarded as expert consultants, putting the lie to myths of meritocracy.

Would a book titled "DOW TO STAGNATE" or "DOW A PONZI SCHEME" have been a best-seller? Of course, we should note the Dow since 2000 and before the present plunge had already dropped 40% or more if we account for inflation, or for the decline of the dollar relative to the euro, or for the rise in dollar-denominated benchmark commodities like oil and gold.

It's like the difference in the career trajectories of pundits who pimped the Iraq war lies, like Zakaria and Friedman, as opposed to those who didn't. Fukuyama's an excellent example of what I mean. A smoother adapter to ideological zeitgeist you will not see! He did "End of History" in the early 1990s, was a PNAC signatory late in the 1990s and an Iraq attacker in 2003, and has since continued to cater to consensus opinion by renouncing the neocons and denouncing the Bush "failure" to plan in Iraq. Whatever his next work of opportunist bullshit is, it's likely to land him on the NYT best-seller list, get him moderate crowds on tour, and win him several hours on C-SPAN's Book TV. Meanwhile, you and I might advance a legitimate critique of him on an Internet board.

In short, stupidity is not the main problem! It really is the failure of the audience, who fail to laugh these guys out of the room.

[JVS]

3. FAIL 36,000!

[Hydra]

4. You know, the saddest thing is that we could have at least been at 24,000

Had Al Gore been allowed to claim his office.

[HamdenRice]

6. Sad but near true

Just do a back of the envelope calculation of Clinton era growth:

(1.04)^8 = 1.36 (Clinton 4% average growth compounded for 8 years of Gore)

1.36 x 11,700 = ~ 16,000

Not what they predicted, but better than below 10,000.

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

7. they obviously thought Gore was gonna win

[JackRiddler]

15. Nope, at least one of them was a neocon with AEI and now advises McCain!

Hassett.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4181831

[anarch]

8. DOW 3,600

[Xenotime]

10. That's what it will be buy the end of the year.

Average -500 every week and we will be there.

[Javaman]

9. maybe it was a typo in the title, it should read...

-36,000

:rofl:

[Geek_Girl]

11. Wall street could've had it! Democratic Presidents are historically better for the markets

nt

[LSdemocrat]

12. Some sort of election theft in 2000, followed by incredible incompetence may have derailed that

[krispos42]

13. They made a typo on the cover.

I fixed it.





:rofl: :cry:

[JackRiddler]

14. Hassett's advising McCain!!!!

That is too good:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4181831

[krispos42]

16. The Dow is down again

Kick for the memories. And a shameless plug for my photoshop.