Crash ’08: Should You Be Scared?

If you’ve been watching the news lately, you might’ve seen something about the economy… but in case you’ve been living in a cave, things are bad. Are we on the verge of another depression? Should you be scared by what you see happening in the stock market?

Let’s take a stroll through history… all the way back to the golden years of the late 80′s. It was a simpler time: disco was a fading memory, 3 Men And A Baby was sweeping the box office, and anything seemed possible. Then came October 19th, 1987, the day the stock market saw it’s largest single day decline in history. 22% of the market was wiped out at once.

Fast forward to the 21st century, take a look at the past 100 years as a whole, and you’ll barely notice a decline on the graph; the market simply recovered as it always has after hard times. So in retrospect, October 20th would’ve been a great day to buy. Why? Because unless you believe the US economy is going to hit 0, it will come back up (eventually).

So should you be scared? Without a doubt, we may be facing hard times ahead, but it’s no reason to panic. Just keep things in perspective, always have a level head, and you might even profit in the long run.

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