How Low Can It Go?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Slingin Sammy 33

The POTUS has very little control by himself. A Democratic POTUS with a Democratic Congress has a great deal of control. In this particular situation where the housing market has tanked due to bad loan policies, it will take some gov't intervention to fix the situation and remove the bad loans from the system. Hopefully this will restore banks confidence in each other and people's confidence in the banks. Credit should begin to flow and people will spend again.

However in the face of this economic crisis a tax increase targeted at those who drive the economy, a capital gains increase, restoration of a 45% death tax and energy/pollution taxes (which will be paid by every American who has electric service or puts gas in his/her car), coupled with huge spending increases has a great deal to do with the current drop in the markets. Will they rebound, at some point of course. We came out of the depression and the 70s, but as FRPLG mentioned, we will most likely wind up with another lost decade if Obama's administration doesn't do an about face on their current policies/positions.

For the record I'm betting on a floor of 4800.

I wholeheartedly agree with the economic theories you're discussing here (and I've sung them from the mountaintops myself within these forums).

But I think a good deal of the expectations of poorer earnings were priced in around the time Obama was elected, and certainly were priced in by the time details of his stimulus bill were made available. I think the fundamentals support a bottom no lower than Dow 6000. Any decline below that point will be as irrational as the exuberance noted as same by Alan Greenspan in the late 90s.