Monday, September 29, 2008

Where does it end?

NONE of this should be construed or interpreted as advice.

Philip Murphy asked where the bottom will be for the Dow. Here's is what I can say at this point. There is a significant uncertainty as to how much the government bailout (Pelosi called it a "buy-in" - uh, hmmm, No!) There is significant over-leveraging throughout the world that is falling apart. (See European bank failures announced today also.)

While there may be a short-term boost (or at least a pause in the downward move) due to the government program, I expect the down to continue. It will not surprise me to see us go as low as 8300-8400 on the Dow before it is all said and done. I expect significantly more bank failures. This morning's buyout of Wachovia and last Friday's failure of Washington Mutual are 2 big examples, but I expect there will be a LOT of smaller banks fail. This will be caused by AND will cause a lot more fear in the economy.

You see, there are 2 emotions that rule the market - fear and greed. Guess which one is in control now...

BTW, NONE of this should be construed or interpreted as advice.

Addendum - Wow, what a day. I expect a bill to be passed fairly quickly. I expect the market to respond positively to that passage. Whether that response will be as "severe" as today's is a bit less clear. I can say that there is a LOT of money sitting on the sidelines, waiting to feel that it is safe to get back in the water. The most aggressive will leap in, but the smart ones will only stick a toe or two in at first. Stocks *are* getting cheap. But there is much illness in the markets that has to work its way out - and no bailout can supplant the need for the process of actually getting healthy. Cancer takes aggressive, risky medicine - and the process is VERY painful, with ugly side-effects. Addicts go through withdrawal. Well, we're so addicted to credit that we have the DTs. And we may have cancer from our long-term exposure to a credit-driven lifestyle. Again, NONE of this should be construed or interpreted as advice.

2 Comments:

Blogger bekster said...

This is a gigantic example of why folks should stay away from debt (or at least be VERY careful with it). By the way, this should be construed or interpreted as advice.

I also want to say that, while America as a whole will certainly have some significantly rough times, we are STILL the most blessed country in the world. Even those here without jobs or homes are STILL better off than a good percentage of the world's population (except that they lack the experience to cope with that kind of situation).

And you KNOW that as soon as Obama wins (although I'm still hoping and praying for the opposite), the market will eventually come back up (as it naturally has to) and he will take all the credit. Of course this will probably hit its peak when he is up for re-election. How's that for sick?

5:10 PM  
Blogger Pete Goode said...

I had said 8500 cuz i figured the 200 would rise.

becky, you're right. Politicians ony know how to take credit and taxes. The president (all of them) generally don't do much of anything. It's that darned congress that screws us up.

10:24 PM  

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