Tuesday, September 30, 2008

People are jumping out of windows

.


The


Dow Jones Industrial Average


is highly erratic



No doubt those jumping from tall buildings and staring gloomily into computer monitors are those obsessed by quarterly earnings. These are the same folks who have destroyed American industry in the name of personal bonuses and profits. They can only conceive of one direction for stock prices --- UP!


1987 2,000

1990 2,365

2000 11,722

2002 7,286

2007 14,300

2008 13,300

Yesterday 10, 365
, down 777 points, 7.0 %


When the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached each of eleven 1,000-point milestones

1,000

Nov. 14, 1972

76 years

2,000

Jan. 8, 1987

14 years

3,000

April 17, 1991

4 years

4,000

Feb. 23, 1995

4 years

5,000

Nov. 21, 1995

9 months

6,000

Oct. 14, 1996

11 months

7,000

Feb. 13, 1997

4 months

8,000

Jul. 16, 1997

5 months

9,000

Apr. 6, 1998

9 months

10,000

Mar. 29, 1999

12 months

11,000

May. 3, 1999

1 month

Dow Jones




Linear graph of the DJIA from 1896 through March 2008 (Wikipedia)



The Dow fell 22.61% on Black Monday (1987). Two days later it rose 10.15%. (Wikipedia)



The Dow fell 14.3% after the September 11, 2001 attacks. [Wikipedia]
It was closed for a week after the World Trade Center disaster.

The Dow fell 7.0% on September 29, 2008




Last Two Years of the Dow Jones Industrial Average close

CNN


Of course what for me is a temporary "adjustment" may be a calamity for you. But historians may prefer the "adjustment" term.




2 comments:

Terry Nelson said...

I distinctly remember when it hit 10,000 in 1999.

Anyway - I decided I might drink myself to death instead.

Terry Nelson said...

Another word - at our age - there is little time or opportunity to recover, if you lost 20%. Young people do not need to worry so much - if they have a job and health insurance and on and on - or maybe they do.