A Bad Case of the Jitters
"The good news is that a stock's price can't fall below zero. So, fortunately, the most you can lose is everything." GARY W. JANSEN New Canaan, Conn.
The coming of a bear market should have been obvious to anyone who made an effort to keep up with what was happening in the securities industry [BUSINESS, March 26]. Most stocks are little more than overvalued gambling chips that do nothing for the stockholder unless he can sell them to another sucker for a price higher than he paid. He's like a victim in a pyramid scheme. The guys who are really raking it in are the corporate CEOs and their colleagues. MANI DELI Toronto
Here in Seattle you'd think it was Judgment Day from the sheer panic that market volatility has created in the minds of business as well as in the local and national media. Seattle hasn't been shaken as much by the earthquake and Boeing's decision to relocate its headquarters as by the inane spin the media are putting on the market's downturn. Instead, the media should be reporting on the intricacies and complexities that truly make for stability in business. ELIZABETH HARRIS Seattle
The Internet bubble is a lot like other monumental investment schemes throughout history. Common characteristics include mass greed and a complete disconnect between a stock's price and its fundamental value. How ironic that the Internet, the very thing at the center of this mania, holds the promise to enlighten and educate investors through information flow. ED SAUNDERS Los Angeles
There's a great lesson for all of us to be found in the tech-stock market massacre. I just wish I knew what it is. BEN WOODS Menlo Park, Calif.
When the market goes up, I eat regularly for 24 hours. When the market goes down, I fast for a day. Thanks to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, I have lost 130 lbs. so far. By the time Greenspan has finished wrecking the economy, I'll be wafer thin. Thanks to him, when I jump off the roof and land on someone walking below, I'll be too light to do any damage. RICK GRIGSBY Munster, Ind.
It is time for Greenspan to go. He has led us into a severe economic downturn by continually raising interest rates in 1999 and 2000, when there was absolutely no need to do so. If Greenspan were the CEO of a major corporation, he would have been fired long ago. We need a fresh face at the Federal Reserve. MICHAEL R. ADLER Coral Springs, Fla.
While a number of you blamed Greenspan for the sagging economy, others laid the responsibility at the feet of George W. Bush. "The fall of the stock market is not all that incomprehensible in the context of the unsettling end to the presidential election," declared a Californian. "The downturn can be seen as a crisis of confidence in the new Chief Executive." A Michigan reader went even further: "Our court-appointed President talked the country into an economic slump in order to gain momentum for his tax cut. But how much will lower taxes mean to unemployed or retired people who are counting on their stock dividends?" And a Floridian pulled out all the stops: "George W. Bush has mastered the art of frightening the nation and created an atmosphere of worry and hardship so as to promote his own self-interests and those of his friends." Whew!
While Glaciers Melt