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To: Real Man who wrote (371228)	7/13/2008 6:10:28 PM
From: stan_hughes	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Don't underestimate the potential consequences of a multi-decade sea change in attitude toward equities by the retirement-in-progress boomers should the deterioration in equity prices get to the point where these people become genuinely scared and decide to throw in their mutual fund towel lest they lose their whole wad The boomers (aka the investor class) have now seen several of their very large sacred cow companies go from multi-dollar share pricing to mere pennies (or even NADA), and also do it quicker than they can say Jack Robinson -- e.g. Countrywide, Bear Stearns, Indymac, Fannie & Freddie -- as additional companies make their way to the same debt contraction gallows, one of these days the boomers as a group will make the fateful decision to get out of stocks altogether that will get a snowball of irrationality rolling downhill that can't be stopped Value exists largely only in people's minds. Once the confidence breaks, it'll be Katy Bar The Door, and I don't believe we're a long way away from that longstanding confidence being broken. Toss in a financial sector that's out of commission and therefore effectively unable to help support stock prices and you've got a pretty good recipe for one of those rare crash thingies