Here's a prediction just for you...
2015 DOW JONES = 10,000
Since 1965 the average income per household has increased @2-3% each year until today.
Since 1965 the average price of gas has increased around the same percent or maybe even a bit less.
From 1965 to 1995 houses, cars and the DOW Jones increased at that same rate (@2-3%).
In 1995 until 2005 the rate of increase for these last 3 items took off 6-8%.
This economical boom was enabled by a increase of household and business debt of 10-15%. Credit has always existed, but until 1995 it was @5-8% per household.
Which means 2 things.
1. Our purchase power has not changed in 40 years. We have to get back to the trend we were on for 30 years.
2. All this recent growth we have had is fake. Borrow a bunch of money and call me wealthy.
Stan
Black Friday 11/20/2009
Are we sheep? Are we flocks? Why do we stand in line for hours? Why do we need the latest gadget? The latest phone? What if this entire day is a media and business driven event?
The amount of our hard earned dollars we spend on Friday November 20th will be larger than most countries operating expenses during an entire year. There are nearly 30 countries who's GNP (gross national product are under 1 billion US dollars a year) their combined population is larger than the amount of people that will be standing in those lines early Friday morning. Some of these countries are struggling to feed and shelter their population.
Will we spend over 1 billion dollars on Black Friday? I would think so.
Look at your cell phone. If 100 million people have these things and the spend $50 a month. Take a guess and say only $10 of that monthly payment is profit, I'd think it's higher, but I'm not sure. That is 1 billion a month!
Are we spending more money each month on our wants, while millions of people need just to survive? It seems so.