Memories of happiness.

Today's Tids Issue 4.284

It's over, and it was damn good:

Well, it a was particularly delightful day up here in New England. We had cool weather and, like you all, warm friends and relatives that dominated the day of peace. Where good food and creative gifts abound.  And infectious silliness in fun games played. There was no bad or abusive news, because reporters also took the day off.

Butter is the essence of life.

A local sports talker and wannabe cultural analyst said last week that what we have in society today is just a result of natural evolution of acceptance. He was basically saying we have to accept bad behavior, because society has voted on it, and newer generations say being discourteous, immoral, rude, inconsiderate and other sorts of human irresponsible behavior short of murder is ok. Yes, I think he was trying to make the point that just because things naturally evolve due to generational reassessment, it’s ok to lower standards. I don’t buy it.

With the USA withdrawal, the Kurds will have to find their own way. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

The Question:

Back to reality. What do you think were the worst 9 bear markets since 1929?

The Headlines:

--Investors Looking For Santa Claus Rally; Stocks Higher ThroughMmorning..

--Trump Adds Mnuchin To His “Frustrated With Cabinet Members” List, But Inte End Praises Him.

--Putin Oversees Test Of New Hypersonic Weapon; New Weapon Could Reach Anywhere In World And “Easily Avoid Defensive Weapons”.

--Death Toll In Indonesian Tsunami Rises To 429.

--Customs and Border Security To Change Custody Procedure In Wake Of Seconds Death of child.

--North A South Korea Jointly Break Ground for New Intern-Peninsular Railway System.

The President of the USA has lost his security blanket, the constantly rising stock Market. This is definitely not a good thing for stability in decision making.  

Based on the latest test scores compared to education spending in RI, this tiniest of states has proven once again that there is no correlation between high spending on education, and better educated kids.    

The “Big East” Is not getting much love from the national NCAA pollsters this year.

The stock markets are fragile at best, and firing Fed Chief Powell would probably be the worst way to build confidence.

Speaking of the new wave of acceptable cultural change, the first woman head of the RI State Police said in a statement upon her announced retirement Christmas Eve, “My goal from day one was to increase diversity throughout our ranks, to more accurately reflect the ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic community our agency serves.” Silly me, I thought job one for a State Police chief was to build the finest, most technical and technique advanced police organization protect citizens from increasing literal and virtual violence in the world. I wonder if she hired or promoted any billionaires to achieve her stated diversity goal.

I need to build up my body with fitness exercise and better eating, but my body tells me no whey.  Shoot me.

The recent Tsunami in Indonesia has killed so far about 470 people. That is awful, but somewhat minor compared to other tsunamis that have it the island nation. These things happen and after short news cycle the world seems to forget the human suffering.

Tomorrow I will be unencumbered and will get to refamiliarizing you with the novel currently on hiatus, I will now begin finishing to completion. Hope I’m not over-promising.

Expect that in the first days of the Dem congress seeing early votes for “Medicare All”. That could be one of the big pushes for this new congress and it could serve as a rallying cry for their 2020 campaign.

The Answer:

The first is the most famous bear market, 34 Months from Sept 1929 to June 1932. Next would be the 37-month bear market from May 1946 to June 1949 triggered by end of WWII. The rest were December 1961 to June 1962 triggered by Bay of Pigs; Nov 1968 to May 1970 triggered by riots, Nixon election, Viet Nam and higher inflation; Jan 1973 to Oct 1974 triggered by end of Bretton Woods monetary system and 1973 oil crisis; November 1980 to August 1982 triggered by Volcker raising interest rates contributing to national unemployment of 10%; Aug 1987 to December 1987 triggered by Black Monday oct 18 1987 after intro of computerized trading and also fears of dollar devaluation; March 2000 to Oct 2000 triggered by Dot Com bubble burst; Oct 2007 to March 2009 triggered by collapse of the housing market. The 1929 market lost 86% and the 2007 market lost 57%. This current market is in an era of low unemployment, very low interest rates and stable or even low-priced oil. We could be facing some housing inflation, a bit of dot com overextension, global recession and a possibility of irrational behavior in DC. But it looks like it could be triggered by too many people worrying that the markets have been too high. So, to me, if it falls it could be short term and probably not seriously injurious. But, who needs it.

Well, now it is on to New Year’s. Have to find some new puns for the celebration that has become tired for years for me.