What’s up with all these down arrows? Didn’t Alan Greenspan and company ride in on a white horse and save the markets last week?
Al may have been the market’s pal then, but he shouldn’t get all the credit for handing stocks an oxygen tank. Just as he doesn’t get all the blame for the bear either.
I’m no Alan apologist and probably won’t get an invitation to the Fed’s holiday party. And I know it’s human nature to want to blame somebody.
There are certainly plenty of poster children available. The head of the Fed for doing too little, too late to jumpstart an economy that he slowed too fast. And then all those overpaid analysts who knew just the latest greatest dot-com to take your portfolio to the moon.
Alan should get some grief. He’s made mistakes: he didn’t see the recession of ’91 or the downturn of ’01 early enough. And I’m not going to defend the twenty-somethings who made a million-something to hype stocks often at the expense of us investors. They didn’t yell “sell” soon enough.
But are they the only ones who should take some blame when we see those minus signs on our statements? Come on!
The bear market has taught that stocks don’t defy the laws of gravity. But don’t forget that somebody pushed the buy button during the market mania — it wasn’t all Alan or an overpaid analyst. The mutual fund managers with control of our 401ks get some of the blame too.
But you know who else does, too? We do, for flocking to those funds with the highest short-term return. I’m just saying that the issue is a little more complicated that pointing a finger at one person.
– Brenda Buttner is the host of Bulls & Bears which airs Saturdays at 10 a.m. ET and Sundays at 9 a.m. ET on the Fox News Channel.
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