Is it just me or do things seem far too calm the last few weeks? I mean, we're in the midst of the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression and we've got the stock market up nearly 40% since early March. Where's the panic? What happened to the grave concern?
My sense is there are a couple things behind the recently relative calm. First, there is only so much of a constant stream of dire news one can take before you start to go numb. When you've already heard about the bulk of the financial system being insolvent, entire industries going bankrupt, etc. it's easy to get jaded.
For those of us fortunate not be be directly impacted by a job loss and maybe not much effect on our circle of friends, it may be easy to dismiss the supposed severity of the crisis. However, we shouldn't get lulled to sleep by this relative calm. If you stay focused on what's really happening (unemployment still increasing, no fix for the banks, etc.) it's hard not to conclude that things will get much worse before they'll get better.
So don't come out of the basement just yet...
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al loomis
Don Rich
icemilkcoffee
Lisa Solod
Eric Root
Saturn Smith
Salon.com
Comments
Despite the bull from Buffett, the way to make money in the stock market is spotting companies worth multiples of current quote to some larger company. Cash out the capital gains. Sun being slurped up by Oracle last week is just the most recent example. 40% in one day or so. Not bad wages.
Pity poor China, reputedly holding $2 trillion dollars in signature loans backed only by the "full faith and credit of the United States". Aw, to hell with pity, go belly up on 'em -- serves 'em right for selling our kids toys with lead-based paint and our senior citizens poisoned heparin.
One more thing, anybody who couldn't see all this coming, either didn't look at George Bush's checkered resume or saw it and couldn't believe he was that ignorant and incompetent. He was.