But is that a bad thing? A quick look at history shows that it probably isn't. The last time consumer sentiment was this low was right before the beginning of the longest bull-run in history. The best book on that era is called Bull: A History of the Boom and Bust: 1982-2004. The chart below of the Dow Jones Industrial Average performance during 1980-2000 pretty much tells the story. See the little divot on the far left side? Yeah, that was 1982.
So don't get too depressed about consumer weakness. The last time things looked this bad, they ended up working out better than ever. And anyone who sold on the scary headlines regretted it very quickly.
Before the bell: Futures lower as oil rises, despite Alcoa earnings
Alcoa's Q2 2008 earnings transcript
Sir John Templeton, best contrarian investor of the 20th Century, dies at 95
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-05-2008 @ 4:32PM
william lindblad said...
The economy ALWAYS recovers, however how long it takes depends on how bad it gets beat up.