slickvguy

Pundit Failure: We Are in a Bear Market and This Is a Recession

Dear mr. internet nostradamus #19384757636,

A recession has a definite meaning - two consecutive quarters of negative growth. It is a FACT that we are NOT currently in a recession.

A bear market is commonly defined as -20%. From peak to current price, the s&P 500 is down about 14.5%. Thus, technically-speaking, we are not in a bear market. Yet.

The current environment is one of a)slow growth, b)housing/credit bubble burst, c)historically high p/e's, d)rising inflation (regardless of what the BLS's massaged numbers indicate), e)flat corporate profits. Clearly this is not a good environment or the stock market as a whole.

Touting your horn about the subprime-related stocks is laughable. You and about 50 million other investors saw the same thing. Big deal.