Who DARED Tell The TRUTH About The Market???

So...did you all think I just up and quit thinking about this blog?

Naaahhh...I just had to wait to see my predictions start coming true. A full year ago I was telling people with whom I worked that we were in a recession and there was a full depression coming. Not one of them bit. NOT ONE OF THEM WOULD BELIEVE ME.

Now, I'm not a prophet. I'm not claiming to be some see-it-all. I just used what little knowledge I have about the markets and conditions in the business world to see the path that was laid out in front of all of us. The STOCK MARKET...the HOUSING MARKET...the LABOR MARKET: all were going to be hit HARD by the rapid decline in one or more of these areas of the economy. Let me share with you how many economics classes I took in college: ZERO. ZILCH. NADA.

No, it doesn't take a degree in economics to see where things can go. It takes some common sense and reporter's skills. And if you thought I was a raving lunatic in April or May when I was clearly outlining what was going to happen --- now you wonder "did I sell soon enough?"

Let me go back to my predictions -- and here's the thing, I'm not going to be able to give you exactly how I worded it in a conversation that I was having in March of 2008, but suffice it to say that --- when I was on the air at KZQZ in June this year (2008) and made the on-air announcement that we are in the GREAT DEPRESSION of 2008 --- I was NOT KIDDING that the depression in the economy was coming. And for those of you who thought I was, I am sorry to inform you that it is here, it will be here for the next several weeks, and the stock markets reflect that it is here.

As I type this, the Asian markets were in a free-fall. Quoting an AP story that was online via Yahoo! news a few minutes ago: "There's no bottom to the stock markets now," said Francis Lun, general manager at Fulbright Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong. "There's no clue when it will stop."

Do you see what I mean?

Okay --- bottom line. My predictions off-air were that we'd see things on the DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVG in the 8000 range by the end of 2008...likely BEFORE Christmas. And if things continue in the way they have this week, that could be sooner rather than when I initially made my goofball prediction. At this point, I will finally give you the GOOD NEWS of what will be. At the conclusion of the holiday season, a few retailers who have been predicting less-than-wonderful sales will be pleasantly surprised to find that they met their expectations --- and in some cases surpassed the sales figures they were thinking were going to occur. Yeah, that's right. I'm predicting that at least one retailer will say they had better-than-expected results. And that's because whomever was still left in charge at the company will have had an idea what was to come and they predicted a large decline in spending due to the economic DEPRESSION. And, shortly after that ONE PIECE OF GOOD NEWS, things will start to improve SLOWLY.

Here's what I cannot see at this point in time: WHEN the economy will be on a definitive upswing. I don't have a prediction on that. And I TRULY wish I did, because I'd be finding money and borrowing money and investing it. But...I do not have a clue. Just knowledge that what we are experiencing is a sucky period called a DEPRESSION.

Good luck in figuring out how to weather this storm.