Madcap Money
September 17, 1979
“The market is an ongoing drama,” mused William LeFevre, a vice president at Granger & Co., a stock brokerage firm. The Dow Jones Industrials were up 9.5% for the year but remained significantly below the record highs reached three years earlier. Overall, stocks were barely beating inflation, which had averaged 7.5% per year between 1974 and 1978. A typical savings account returned a tax and inflationadjusted minus6%; corporate bonds, about negative 2%. A majority of Americans said “they were unwilling to take the risks of longterm investments in stocks. They see stocks a poor bet for preserving capital and purchasing power.” Our advice for navigating the turbulence was as true then as it is now: “If one thing is certain, it is that no trend goes on forever.” If stocks seemed bad then, there would just as surely come a time when they didn’t, resuming their climb upward. “By the time the general public fully grasps a trend, that trend is nearly over.”
“A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself.” —Chinua Achebe
“Every breathing soul longs to overcome.” —Ted Dekker
“I was like you once, he added—in love with turbulence.”
—Louise Glück
“It’s astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into, if one works at it.” —Neil Gaiman
“As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.”
—Alan Watts
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” —Pelé
“I got my heart’s desire, and there my troubles began.” —Lev Grossman
“About me all goes really silent, from time to time, whereas for the righteous the tumult of the world never stops.”
—Samuel Beckett
“The difficult problems in life always start off being simple. Great affairs always start off being small.”
—Lao Tzu
“I don’t damsel well. Distress, I can do. Damseling? Not so much.” —James Patterson