will be another one of those record upturns as bargain hunters rush in. When there's a slow and steady drop over an extended period of time because of events such as an obvious depletion of our natural resources, a huge shift in population demographics, a pending humanity altering event looming, etc., only then do I take stuff like this as a signal to change my own personal economics.

Wall street players have continually shown the wisdom of lemmings and the emotional maturity of a pubescent teenager. I'm not downplaying the damage they're doing. Many will be devastated by swings like this but in 4 or 5 years we'll be back up in another moronic bubble where everything is overvalued again. It's human nature.

I have really only one real concern about the global economy. The entire model is based on continual growth which evolved because of the natural growth of population. The problem with that ideal is that population growth throughout mankind's existence has traditionally been a good thing since we had the space and resources to absorb the additional numbers and we all had plenty of elbow room. Typically the quality of life works best if too many people aren't crammed into too little space.

Well, we're at that tipping point in world population where it can no longer be assumed that population growth and basing our economy on that trend is a good thing. Nations that do not reverse the overpopulation trend will have their life quality diminish greatly. If, however they do address their numbers and do not adjust their economic model as well, the financial effects will be devastating. Companies must begin to find their ideal size and become happy with it. Until we stop with this ideal that you must constantly grow your successful business to remain successful we'll always have the troubles we're seeing today. Of course without growth, investing in corporations will not be the major source of wealth it's been except for startups.

That's a good thing though. What a wonderful place it will be if the message one carries from the university they get their MBA from is not to make your fortune by manipulating other people's money but by once again producing actual products.

Art