So, what are we to make of this stock market?

First, we should recognize it has at least been good for the Thesaurus business. It has swooned, dumpster-dived, plummeted, crashed, swan-dived, slipped, dipped, sunk, drooped, dropped, come a cropper, toppled, tumbled. And as Dizzy Dean would have it, it slud.

Next, we should be able to see it has made investing a lot simpler. By slip-sliding so far, it has reduced our choices to so few. To two, in fact. 

We choose to believe it will survive. Or it will not. We choose to believe the country’s economic system will revive. Or it will cop it. Back to that question in a minute.

You may find this hard to believe, but most stock investors around the world would prefer to be invested in our market. If they had to be invested anywhere. This is because ours is the best of a rum lot. Of the major markets, ours has lost the least. If you think our investors are left with a bad taste in their mouths, Chinese and Russian stock buyers feel they have been sucking Drano drops.

By the way, so many folks complain they have “lost” half of their retirement nest eggs. That is true if they plan to spend it all the next few years. Or if they plan to spend every nickel of income from it the next few years.