May 1940

[Steve Brown]

My friend at work who writes about the stock market was totalling up this week's Wall Street losses. I asked him when was the stock market last down this much. He fumbled with some charts and said: "The last time the market fell this much was in May 1940. Wonder what was happening then?" Indeed, a lot was happening. Early in the month the Nazis had taken over Holland bringing troops in by air. They were pushing across France just days away from overruning Paris. And the Brits and French were seeing thousands of their men slaughtered at Dunkirk as they Allied forces fled Europe for the relative safety of England. Most financial analysts thought it would just be a matter of weeks before the Brits gave up to Hitler who had already taken most of Europe. May 1940 was arguably the worst month of the second world war. So when my friend unknowingly said this week's sell of was almost as bad it really made me stop and wonder.

[Guest Kevin AZ]

Our country is strong & our resolve is unyielding. We shall overcome. I have no doubt!

[Guest]

Yes, and just off the top of my head i believe it was not until about 1960 that the street had recovered to the level prior to <BR>May of '40. (T W EN T Y Y E A R S!) a sharp decline also occured about '58. <P>Never buy, sell the put.<BR>Never sell, but short the call.<BR>Its the man who sells'em that makes the money.

[Guest]

Hi Kevin, I knew I could count on you for the right response!<P>Yes, there are parallels, but this is going to be a conflict the likes of which we've never seeen. The spirit of unity and patriotism throughout the country which we've seen the last week is inspiring!<P>I just hope that when the "battle" gets to be tough, boring and miserable the flag-wavers will still be with us.<P>Meantime, the attitude, "Towers - uh, oh yeah, but GEEZ!! The Dow is falling, the Dow is falling!!" kinda gets to me. Our brilliant pundits in the press were on the verge of talking us into a recession before this happened.<P>We've got leadership - go about your business, if you're really patriotic, put a few bucks into a stock instead of playing the flippin' lottery! Do what you've been doing, but do it better and with purpose, and let's not let 'em think they got us down for one second!<P>God bless America!