FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for July 20, 2010

And that was … your Moment of Downer. ;-)

Nabuquduriuzhur,

The difference is that back in the 1930s we still made almost everything in the United States, so we could eventually dig ourselves out of that mess of the Great Depression.

NOW, because we import everything imaginable from China, WE CAN’T dig ourselves out of the mess we are in now!!! There is nothing we make here that we can use to ‘bootstrap’ our economy back to working again. We couldn’t even fight a serious war now like we could in the 1940s because there is no big industrial base that could be converted from automobile manufacture to weapons manufacture like it was in WWII!!! Henry Ford was eventually producing one COMPLETE B-24 bomber EVERY HOUR! How long did it take the English to turn out one complete Lancaster?!! Packard built 50,000 American made Rolls-Royce Merlin engines that were better than the ones Rolls-Royce made! ( Instead of being hand made so no two parts were interchangeable from one engine to the other, they were mass produced on Packard’s assembly line, and Packard almost DOUBLED the horsepower output of the Rolls-Royce engine! )

This one is going to degenerate into REALLY bad times, for a VERY LONG TIME!!!

Unbelieveable… was it really Roger who thought of the possibility of stock going down??

He can lose his money just as fast with professional help.

I thought the 90s were great. A lot of people had never lived through a downturn. Then for the last 10 years, every time there is a correction panic ensues “Where can I put my money where it’s safe?” Mattresses and banks come to mind, they both pay about the same interest. But tell me, you’ve trusted America enough to invest in it and the market for 10 years. Now you want to sell when the market’s low? Buy high, sell low? Show a little faith and buy now. Has it ever failed before. The DOW is still 10,000. It was 670 when I made my first transaction. Historically the market always rises over time. What do you think, America’s going to shut down? 100% unemployment. Guess what your dollar will be worth then?

No I believe in America, our workers, our innovation, and our ability to retool for the modern world. If you drive a horse and buggy, Bank of America is offering 3/4% savings. Bonds, can we drive them any lower?.

@Lewreader—May you be sincerely blessed and right. We, as a country, have been through a lot. Now, we must get through one more time.

Jason’s view of stocks reminds me of some old girlfriends.

lol @ runar.

Here’s a quick look at what some indexes did in the 10 years before July 1999, though this wouldn’t reflect what day trading was like, I guess.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/eM7Cv2_kd6y6Jpy0q0RY4Q

Ah, yes, the great dotcom crash. Pets.com, I hardly knew you.

Jason! Geez, even the most basic science says that what goes up must come down.