Marketing

[ShelladyOptions]

Good morning.

Got this off of www.zerohedge.com last night. I think it is pretty thought provoking.

• Dow Jones      Industrial Average: Then      14164.5; Now 14164.5
• Regular Gas      Price: Then $2.75; Now $3.73
• GDP Growth: Then +2.5%; Now +1.6%
• Americans      Unemployed (in Labor Force): Then 6.7      million; Now 13.2 million
• Americans On      Food Stamps: Then 26.9      million; Now 47.69 million
• Size of Fed's      Balance Sheet: Then $0.89      trillion; Now $3.01 trillion
• US Debt as a      Percentage of GDP: Then ~38%;      Now 74.2%
• US Deficit      (LTM): Then $97 billion; Now $975.6 billion
• Total US Debt      Oustanding: Then $9.008      trillion; Now $16.43 trillion
• US Household      Debt: Then $13.5 trillion; Now 12.87 trillion
• Labor Force      Particpation Rate: Then 65.8%;      Now 63.6%
• Consumer      Confidence: Then 99.5;      Now 69.6
• S&P      Rating of the US: Then AAA;      Now AA+
• VIX: Then 17.5%; Now 14%
• 10 Year Treasury      Yield: Then 4.64%; Now 1.89%
• USDJPY: Then 117; Now 93
• EURUSD: Then 1.4145; Now 1.3050
• Gold: Then $748; Now $1583
• NYSE Average      LTM Volume (per day): Then 1.3      billion shares; Now 545 million shares

[Slim123]

Shelly: Could you explain what date "then" is?  I didn't see anything in your page that you highlighted.

[BA Deere]

I think it was the last time that the Dow was at  14XXXish or whatever Zimbabwe level we are at.  I mean more people on food stamps, higher gas prices, higher unemployment...nothing to justify it, except helicopter Ben is our pilot in command.

[DismalScience]

I'll take a guess.  Then is the day Barack took office.  Hope for Change.

[marketeye]

Slim123,

It's a comparison to October 2007, the previous record-high for the Dow.

Mike

[ShelladyOptions]

Then and now means "The last time the Dow was here" ....sorry for any confusion...

[DismalScience]

I was only off by a couple years.  I don't know if it would have made a lot of difference if GW was still President.  Congress is not doing their job as spelled out in the Constitution.

[sw363535]

The last one is very "telling" --------------- and should be shocking.

IMO, I have to wonder how much of that is governments intrusion into the private markets??  ie GM, Banking,

And where would the level of investment activity be without the mana from ben?

[nitefarm]

RIGHT

[sw363535]

Sorry Scott,

That last one is still stuck in my scope.

In your opinion, with shares traded that diminished,  who left the marketplace in the last 6 years??  The individual stock holder, did we take that much equity out of the fund trade,  did foreign investment leave us after we passed all our white elephants to them?

Or is that an indicator of how much blue sky we were selling each other??

No big insight in me------------ I am just wondering what you think that statistic tells us??