ON Wall Street, some things are more frightening than panic. One is the sort of Chinese water torture that the stock market has been enduring the drip, drip, drip of week-by-week price erosion marked not by tumultuous selling but by an absence of buying. Panics tend to burn themselves out swiftly and to be followed by sharp price rebounds, in which intrepid and farsighted men make fortunes. The gradual withering away of prices is a demoralizing process that can go on indefinitely. The losses to investors in the long run can add up...
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