Stock Market Losses continue to mount

If there was any more reason to believe that the government is not the organization to effect change in the financial systems in this country, the continuous, daily drop in the stock markets both domestically and overseas should illustrate this fact most pointedly. If the over $2.2 Trillion USD being thrown at the financial systems have not "thawed the credit markets", "stopped the crisis", etc. it indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of how financial systems operate by the politicians.

Confidence by both the lending organizations and borrows have been thrown to the wind, and it does not come back overnight even with the government insuring everything and everyone. It will only return after those have been burnt have had time to let their wounds heal. It will take time, not more of this or more of that.

The bottoming process is going to take some time and the consumer pulling back as unemployment mounts is not going to help. A recession is a normal result of an expansion, not something to be avoided. It resets all the pointers to zero, cleans out the excesses and paves the way for the next wave of innovation and growth. We some how believe that the Fed or the Treasury or the Congress can do something to mitigate or eliminate recessions. They can't unless they change the rules like take the country towards a more socialist formation. It is a normal process, folks.

If you use the principles that you have read here such as dollar cost averaging and the sell in May, buy back in November, you will do quite well over the length of a normal working life. It's not anything to fear, just do.