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Non-Tech : The Critical Investing Workshop -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jill who wrote (1686)	1/30/2000 4:50:00 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 35685

According to U.S. News and World Report, only 44 percent of Americans own stock. Only about 28 percent, about half of those, have more than $10,000 worth of stock. usnews.com My understanding of "paying down the debt" is that the money to do so will be "borrowed" from Social Security which is currently running surplus, but it will have to be paid back. Where I come from, that's called "borrowing from Peter to pay Paul." I don't get the point of Fishofer's post. He's conceding that there is inflation, so it should come as no surprise that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates. It's what they do - that's their charter. Every action that the Federal Reserve takes has a myriad of consequences, which benefit some and are not beneficial to others, but they are striving to maintain the value of our currency. It's true that central banks are not able to micromanage the economy, there's a limit to what they can do, but that doesn't keep them from trying. The point I was trying to make was that, yes, Americans are buying stock as a way of saving money for future expenditures - and over the long run, stock ownership pays a better return than other investment vehicles. But you can't expect that in the short run, you'll make money in the stock market. Look at Berkshire Hathaway, which most people thought was safe as houses. Look at the poor investors that bought AOL, AMZN, or QCOM at the top. It's not at all the same thing as savings for those people. The ratio of stocks on the New York Stock Exchange that are below the 200 day moving average to those that are above is two to one. Twice as many stocks on the New York Stock Exchange are below the 200 day moving average as above. Tell those people that investing in the stock market is the same as, or better than, savings.