Does anybody remember that book Dow 36,000? I'm sure its authors would prefer that we forget it. The oughts--that's the fancy way of saying the decade we are currently living in--have been a horrible time for the stock market. The Dow Jones reached its height, 11,723, on January 14, 2000. That's almost seven years ago. Two months after the Dow peaked, the NASDAQ hit its high, 5,133. It has dropped about 60 percent since.

If all goes well, the Dow will reach its all-time high this week. What took you so long?

Dorothy, we're not in the 1980s anymore--or the '90s for that matter. Instead, we are living in economic times (and in some ways, political times) that resemble the 1970s. Sure, inflation, to borrow a Gerald Fordism, has been whipped, and unemployment is low. But gas prices are still high (though dropping), interest rates are rising, the housing market has fallen, and the stock market is anemic. Deja vu all over again?

Check out this chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since the market crash of 1929. Notice anything? Yeah, it generally goes in the right direction: upward. But, beginning with the last year of Bill Clinton's presidency and extending through George W. Bush's presidency, the chart dips and flatlines. In the nearly seventy-seven years chronicled on the chart, there is one period--the 1970s--that especially resembles the period in which we are living.

That's not a good thing.

The economy is growing, thought not as fast as we would like it to, inflation is well in hand, and unemployment is low.

This is no 1970s. They may not be the best of times for the US economy, but they are far, far, from the worst of times.

P.S: And the deflation of the housing bubble was bound to cause a period of slow growth. The markets will recover.

Are there any charts that divide things into different sectors? I've been following certain tech stocks off and on for the past 3-4 years and they all seem to have done well.

The national economy is a black box to me, but I did realize a few months ago that the Fed. will not allow the economy to boom. Whenever it heads in that direction, they raise interest rates 17 times in a row. Surely a heavy-handed fed. is partially (primarily?) responsible for the flat markets of the last two decades. Any economists around here to clue me in?

Ralph, What flat market are you referring to over the last two decades? Surely volatile! Anyway, Glassman's prediction has a little over three years left to run. Who knows, he may yet be right!