Henry Blodget
Business Insider
8/4/2011
Well, it’s deja vu all over again.
For anyone who followed the market crashes of 2000-2002 and 2007-2009–especially the crash of 2007-2009–the 512-point drop in the Dow feels awfully familiar.
And as those market crashes reminded us, the downdrafts can last a lot longer and be a lot more severe than most people initially think.
(They can also reverse themselves quickly and unexpectedly, and maybe that’s what will happen this time. We can always pray.)
But there are also several very important differences between this market crash and the ones a few years ago:
- The Fed has fired most of its bullets (interest rates are already at zero)
- Our budget deficit is already out of control, and Congress has had it with “stimulus”
- The public has had it with bailouts
That means the government’s ability to do anything about this market crash is severely limited.
Yes, we’ll almost certainly have a “QE3.” And maybe that will prop things up a bit. But it won’t fix the fundamental problems clogging the economy, just as QE1 and QE2 didn’t permanently fix anything. (The only thing that will fix our economy is debt-reduction, discipline, and time.)
The article, with graphics, continues at Business Insider.
