YOUR AD HERE »

Letters to the editor March 25, 2009

In these pages on March 10, our congressman Tom McClintock blamed Charlie Brown (and by inference President Obama) for the “continuing decline of the stock market” and the “damage (their) favorite policies are doing to our economy.”

So what happened after that column was published? In the immediate eight succeeding business days, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has run up 18.77 percent, and the Standard and Poors 500 has rallied 14.55 percent.

“The stock market doesn’t look back,” McClintock said. “It is strictly a forward-looking measure of what investors are betting will happen to our economy under current policy.” I note also that he told us that the market’s “precipitous decline since these policies have been unveiled should be a warning to us all.”



So here’s a message to him:

OK, Mr. Congressman, the best experts get ’em wrong now and then. But I invite you, a man whose office affirmed has never been in the financial services industry, to take the egg off your face, take a foot out of your mouth, and set forth a new statement, consistent with your sage counsel, that the dynamic market of mid-March presages a marvelous recovery, thanks to current economic policy!



A word of warning, however: the stock market is one of the greatest inventions in existence that will make big egos humble.

President Obama and his advisers took over with the team mired at the bottom of the standings. He re-did the roster. They are still batting in the first inning of their effort to win this thing and move toward the top. Seems they just scored a few runs. Let’s judge their performance after nine innings are done, OK?

And be mindful of my favorite axiom for the market that can apply to both genuine and make-believe experts: Just when you think you’ve found the key to its mysteries, they change the locks.

Mike Zucker

South Lake Tahoe


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around the Lake Tahoe Basin and beyond make the Tahoe Tribune's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Your donation will help us continue to cover COVID-19 and our other vital local news.