1. Stocks are cheaper, and unless you have large amounts in the market, you should be glad that you can invest at lower rates. It's not like YOUR portfolio is down huge. Everyone knows that the rich own most of the stock, so who are you fooling. 2. They are saying the market is hitting 1998 levels but as I remember, 1998 wasn't that bad! And I know you've always said, I wish I had a time machine and went back to 1998 and invested in the market before the runup! Personally I'd have went back to 1929 and invested right after the crash then. Hopefully we'll see that level and I won't need a time machine. 3. With all the problems we've been having, this crash is like the icing on the cake that will set the Republicans back at least 20 years. Finally people have something to worry about INSTEAD of terrorists, the economy. And the democrats get higher ratings on the economy. That can be seen in how as the economy started to collapse, they voted in democrats. Unfortunately by then it was too late. 4. Contrary to what anyone says, the stock market doesn't mean your money is worth less. Remember in 1950 a dollar bought you more and the market was much lower then. 5. What's worst is the government propping up the market with dollars creating inflation. Now that the government has learned 700 billion isn't enough, hopefully they'll stop devaluing our currency to bailout companies with failing business models. 6. It's getting harder and harder to get a car, a house (place to live), and a job. But if you are on this board, chances are you have at least 2 of the 3. Not bad if you ask me. 7. I hate to say it but America is reactionary and not proactive. It takes a crisis for people to seriously start looking at the economy. The economy has been going down the toilet for some time now, the U.S. dollar has been on a consistent decline, financial gurus have been putting out warnings and nobody listened. Now here it is and you have politicians being forced to take action. This if anything is the fire under their butts that we need towards alternative fuel sources. Bush doesn't care cause he's about to leave, but guaranteed the next President wants to get re-elected and will try to make this turd shine once again! 8. Gas prices are going down, FINALLY! 9. If you play this right, it's probably 10x more likely that you will retire a millionaire than previously. That's if the stocks you buy up don't file bankruptcy, but still, lots of deep discounts out there. 10. This pushes everyone to be conservationists. Of energy, gas, spending, you'll learn to tighten your budget so when we do get out of these lean times, you'll know what a coupon is. What it's like to skrimp and save and get a haircut every other week than just EVERY week. These are all stories you can tell your kids about just like your parents told you about walking 10 miles in the snow uphill with no shoes on to get to school. You can tell them about how you ate ramen noodles for 6 straight months. Man up guys is all I'm saying. MAN UP!
i am concerned about loss of jobs, homes for people/families. But, I do see a positive side as well. the excesses were ridiculous and spoiling our air, our planet...our health!
If you want to get technical, percentage drop statistics are useless. I'm tired of hearing how each decline is being compared to previous percentage declines. Someone said that this was the 3rd worst day for the DOW. This is just a stupid fear tactic to increase news ratings. First off yes, if you are going off blind statistics of 30% vs. 31% or whatever, 31% is higher. However, the valuations are significantly different. a 25% dump in 1929 is not the same as a 25% dump in 2008! The P/Es are hugely different. Not to mention back then less volume/less splits/less shares outstanding. Why is that significant? Well because stocks in 2008 are near an all time high, the shares outstanding have largely scued peoples comparisions of stock XYZ at $10 now versus stock XYZ at $10 20-50 years ago. Some are still saying certain stocks are over valued, even after all the declines. So all these percentage drops are useless/pointless/worthless until valuations are considered.
this year worst than 1929. 1929 only -40%. But 2008 already drop more than 55%. 1929-1932 stock market drop 90%. If this happen again. So S&P 500 will down to 156
Guess you didn't read my post above. You CAN'T compare 1929 to the present 2008 crash. -40% then is a lot worst than 55% now because the valuations are different. A lot of this decline is fat being trimmed off the market.