Lowell
What made the last bear market difficult to see, at least for me, is that we had just come through the horrendous bear market of 2000 - 2002. I will finally learn that war does not a healthy market make.
I see the main cause being the excessive spending coupled with the Fed providing excessively low interest rates for too long causing the housing bubble and then tightening to bring on the recession. Of course the banks and congress share part of the blame as well. It will be interesting to see if Helicopter Ben learns from history. It is clear he is now over stimulating the economy to try to avoid deflation but will he know when to stop and slow things down. Only time will tell.
My view on war is it is important to pick which war you are going to get into and where you will fight it. My view is Afghanistan is not a place to fight a war because of the mountainous terrain and bad weather. The advantages of superior power is easily overcome in such an environment. So I have been against the war in that country but do feel there needs to be action to curtail the possibility of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction falling into the working hands. I also do not view Pakistan as a place to fight a war.
Bob will likely have a few comments about my views on fighting wars. (bg)
Dan | 
