Changed: - Quite a few third world dictators have died, been replaced, thrown out, etc. Many other key figures like Senator Kennedy now dead. - Computing power way way up there since 2007. Any $300 laptop at Walmart is now more powerful in multiples than what you could have bought in 2007. - Blackberry is a thing of the past, Apple is soon to be a thing of the past and now we have these neat Android phones. - trillions upon trillions of dollars of debt and RISING - Bush was in power and not too popular...now Obama is in power and none too popular either. - Unemployment nationally in the 4s now in the "new normal" 8s. - Obama looking his age. The same- - Marc Faber predicting a crash in 2007 and now once again predicting a crash. - Roubini warning us about severe effects in 2007 and now once again giving us that warning. - A lot of the same faces in Congress but this time much older than before. Feel free to add to the list...
Middle class income growth at 20 year low, College grad unemployment rate at all time highs, College debt has nearly doubled from 2007, Gold is double, gas was around 2.75 now it's around 3.75, Corporate earnings doubled, and .... The USA doubled down on the game of robing Paul to pay Peter.
Zimbabwe: Best Performing Stock Market in 2007 The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (the ZSE) is the best performing stock exchange in the world, the key Zimbabwe Industrials Index up some 595% since the beginning of the year and 12,000% over twelve months. Unemployment is said to be near 80%. ----------------------------------------------- Stay tuned for Dow 20k.....
Interest rates were 4.5% in October 2007. Interest earned on your cash in IB's brokerage accounts used to pay a good chunk of your commissions.
Adjusted to Gold, the 'Real Dow' is 57% lower than it was in 2007. This might explain why the economy does not appear, or feal to be as good as it was in 2007; why there seems to be a disconnect between the real economy and the public stock market. In 2007 the Fed didn't have a policy of manipulating equity values to produce an illusory wealth effect.
Marc Faber was wrong and still wrong (four months still counting)! Dr. Doom who can't live without media; his yapper mouth has brought down his average DJI changes from 14,093 in 2007 to 14,293 in 2013: +200 points during the 6 years period.
That is the illusion; for the 'Real Dow', adjusted for Gold, to be worth as much as it was worth in 1971, it would have to have the illusory value, the nominal value of 31,000. You think you are just 200 points from par and yet now you can't retire. You think you are just 200 points from par and yet your earnings are the same but food and gas costs double.
Apple went from $140 to $700 GOOG went from $300 to $800 damn, who would have thought? whoever is buying now a pig! (courage of pig, wouldn't know anything better, but still flow through ahead in the dark). got steamed!