We live in more than one kind of bubble.
Woke up this morning to see what the world stock markets did. In case you didn't know it -- and you might not, that's the point of this blog entry -- the world markets had a massive sell-off in the last couple of days. Down nearly 10% in some countries, which would be like the Dow dropping 1200 points!
Nothing on the front page of the Bulletin. Finally, halfway down the business page, the Bulletin takes notice.
Curious, I check the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the USA Today: sure enough, the lead story in all of them.
It's so bad, the Fed dropped 3 quarter points.
So the Dow is only down about 150 points as of this writing; after predictions it might drop 500 points.
Hey, we're saved!
So there is this drowning swimmer, see. And the rescue copter comes and throws him a lifeline, and drags him to shore. He gets up, and plunges back into the lake. Nothing to worry about, he will be saved if he gets in trouble...
I've decided that stock market people are an alien species, who have settled on earth to play funny games with our economy. They don't really connect it to humans -- it's all about graphs and alien jargon that only they understand, but since they change the meaning of the jargon, and morph the graphs to say anything they want to say, they even delight in fooling each other.
We mere humans watch all this activity with dismay.
I know that I'm supposed to invest my retirement in the stock market. I know that historically it's had the best return. But damn if I like investing in something that is so unknowable. I'll always suspect that those aliens are just funnin' me.
Woke up this morning to see what the world stock markets did. In case you didn't know it -- and you might not, that's the point of this blog entry -- the world markets had a massive sell-off in the last couple of days. Down nearly 10% in some countries, which would be like the Dow dropping 1200 points!
Nothing on the front page of the Bulletin. Finally, halfway down the business page, the Bulletin takes notice.
Curious, I check the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the USA Today: sure enough, the lead story in all of them.
It's so bad, the Fed dropped 3 quarter points.
So the Dow is only down about 150 points as of this writing; after predictions it might drop 500 points.
Hey, we're saved!
So there is this drowning swimmer, see. And the rescue copter comes and throws him a lifeline, and drags him to shore. He gets up, and plunges back into the lake. Nothing to worry about, he will be saved if he gets in trouble...
I've decided that stock market people are an alien species, who have settled on earth to play funny games with our economy. They don't really connect it to humans -- it's all about graphs and alien jargon that only they understand, but since they change the meaning of the jargon, and morph the graphs to say anything they want to say, they even delight in fooling each other.
We mere humans watch all this activity with dismay.
I know that I'm supposed to invest my retirement in the stock market. I know that historically it's had the best return. But damn if I like investing in something that is so unknowable. I'll always suspect that those aliens are just funnin' me.