Dow Jones Average Set to Close at Highest Level Ever

[louis c]

That sounds so exciting............until you realize what that statement really means.

The highest close ever was over five years ago....so,what that rallying cry for the Repukes really means that if you invested in the Dow stocks five years ago, you would have received 0% on your investment. Some big deal. In a passbook account, you would have garnered about 15% on your money over 5 years. What this ludicrous Dow statement really says is that you have accomplished the same investing in the Dow as you would have by putting your money in a mattress, at ten times the risk.

[AX10]

1. ROFL!

"if you invested in the Dow stocks five years ago, you would have received 0% on your investment"

:rofl:

There is something funny about that.

:silly:

[louis c]

5. I'm glad you liked it

I just was thinking about this when Ludlow was screaming about what a great economy we have going and that the "Dow is poised to reach a record high, the highest ever", as if that was some big deal. For your investment to mean anything, the Dow should reach a high-point every week, or surely every month.

[Jcrowley]

2. If Wall Street Is Doing So Well Why Is America Doing So Poorly?

If the chief of your local police department were to announce today that "activity" on the city streets had increased by 15 percent, people would not be impressed, reporters least of all. They would demand specifics. Exactly what increased? Tree planting or burglaries? Volunteerism or muggings? Car wrecks or neighborly acts of kindness? The mere quantity of activity, taken alone, says virtually nothing about whether life on the streets is getting better or worse. The economy is the same way. "Less" or "more" means very little unless you know of what. Yet somehow Wall $treet and it's acolytes manage to induce a kind of collective stupor in which such basic questions rarely get asked.

By the curious standard of the GDP, the nation's economic hero is a terminal cancer patient who is going through a costly divorce. The happiest event is an earthquake or a hurricane. The most desirable habitat is a multibillion-dollar Superfund site. All these add to the GDP, because they cause money to change hands. It is as if a business kept a balance sheet by merely adding up all "transactions," without distinguishing between income and expenses, or between assets and liabilities. The perversity of the GDP affects virtually all parts of society. Divorce, for example, adds a small fortune in lawyers' bills, the need for second households, transportation and counseling for kids, and so on. Divorce lawyers alone take in probably several billion dollars a year, and possibly a good deal more. Divorce also provides a major boost for the real-estate industry. Divorce is a big part of the Real Estate business. It means one home to sell and sometimes two to buy. Similarly, crime has given rise to a burgeoning crimeprevention and security industry with revenues of more than $80 billion a year.

[Egalitariat]

3. I think the high was actually in January 2000. So it's been 6 years...

not 5. Even worse.

[Bluestar]

4. This happened during Nixon Administration also

Highest Dow ever--just before the whole dam burst with Watergate, I think. Is this an omen?