A decade's difference

This morning, my mind drifts back to a time when I worked in the executive suite of a Fortune 50 financial-services company. Specifically, I'm remembering a conversation I had with the business editor of a major-metro newspaper on the day that the Dow Jones Industrial Average first closed above 10,000.

It was a time of great optimism -- we had no reason to believe that our economy would do anything but continue to grow.

I was quoted on page one of the next morning's edition, and that clip graced the wall of my office for many years thereafter. It wasn't displayed as a feather in my professional cap -- rather, it was a symbol of personal pride in my country's economic promise.

That was in March of 1999. Over the next eight-and-a-half years, albeit with a few setbacks, I watched the index claw its way to an all-time record close of 14,164 -- almost exactly one year ago today.

Now, scarcely 90 minutes into this trading week, I've seen the Dow dip as low as 9,738. It's certain to go lower than that.

Ok, so the day isn't over...and it's only one day...and one day doesn't constitute a trend...ya-da, ya-da, ya-da. If I hadn't traded my Pollyanna doll on a bullshit detector, I might still be singing that old song.

Our economy has bled off 32% of market capital in less than a year, almost a third of that in the last ten trading days -- but if the stock market seems too remote to be relevant, consider that during the same period, unemployment is up 23% and payrolls are down by more than a million jobs.

Credit is frozen, wages are down, and the housing crisis threatens to swallow hard-working Americans who haven't already been devastated by the loss of a job or the higher cost of commuting to work, keeping the lights on and feeding a family.

(Without descending into detail here, let's just say that I have first-hand experience with all of the above -- despite working hard and making sound financial decisions all of my adult life.)

Against that backdrop -- three days after taxpayers were fleeced of a trillion dollars, and with a war in Iraq that's a parasite both on our economy and on our national security -- McCain-Palin wants me to care about some '60s radical?

I call bullshit.

(Edit at 4:20pm: The Dow ended today's session at 9,955.50, a loss of 369.88. By 2:45pm, the index had fallen to 9,503 -- a record single-day loss of 800 points, eclipsing the mark of 777 set a week ago -- but picked itself up off the floor in the last hour. McCain-Palin, of course, continues to sling meaningless mud and give short shrift to the issues. Bullshit.)