Learning from the Mistakes of the Past

We have a step in between the kitchen and mud room in our house. After she began walking, my daughter, at about the age of 10 months, noticed this step but didn't really understand what it would require to navigate from one room to the next. She fell. A few days later, she saw our dog run down this one lonely step into the next room. Partially forgetting what had happened before, she inched up the step, got to close, and fell again. She hasn't fallen off of that step for months. I think she learned something.

Let's take a look at some of the steps our country has taken over the last year. I have included some stock prices in here for the S&P 500, as it is slightly more acurate at showing a snapshot of the market than the Dow Jones Industrial Average. January 2008, the S&P 500 Index sits at $1412, all is well.

President Bush, Speaker Pelosi, and a "bipartisan" group of leaders throughout the country see that trouble is on the horizon and in an unusual moment of agreement, our leaders agree to distribute about $150,000,000,000 into the taxpayers hands in the form of rebate checks and tax cuts to "stimulate" the economy.Nothing seems to really change during the spring, but when summer rolls around, people start to smell trouble.

The S&P 500 sits around $1250 for most of the summer, down almost 20% from the January highs. September hits like a lightning bolt, fear is in the air, the government MUST do something, they are the country, no the worlds, only hope. The S&P 500 hits 900%, down almost 39% from January.

President Bush issues the need for $700,000,000,000 in bailout/stimulus for the banks. Half of that is spent by the end of the year.President Obama steps into office and realizes the need for action, no one has been doing anything and the failed policies of the last eight years are taking their toll. We must pass $787,000,000,000 in stimulus to help the economy recover. According to Senator Arlen Specter, no one has time to read the bill, we must act fast. The bill passes. The S&P 500 falls below $850.

We must not have done enough.The Federal Reserve agrees to insure up to $2,000,000,000,000 in loans given out by the banks. The S&P 500 falls below $750, down 48% from the year before. It looks like we'll need to bring in a bigger crane to pull this economy out of the river...











I'm not interested in who did this, only "did they learn anything?"

I'm also not sure if these are real, but they are hilarious.