Well, if the Dollar drops enough, it could be anything.

Don't need to be on crack to hallucinate that scenario. Maybe a fifth of bourbon, but not crack.

So someone's handed him a Jeffries? He's gonna need some furry walls.

It could aslo be at 1,000 in 20 years.

s/aslo/also/

/dammit

Yeah right.

/stock market would collapse if drugs were legalized

But he has to know what he's talking about. He wrote a book. Right?

7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 dwarves. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby.

1. Invest in the market.
2. tell other people the market is going to go up
3. profit.

Well that's it, I'm retiring, living off of my savings knowing that in 20 years, I'll be a billionaire. BRB going to cuss out my boss.

urban.derelict: Yeah right.

/stock market Hippies would collapse if drugs were legalized

FTFY

You know what else the DOW can do? Fondle my balls while it sucks on my cock!

skammie: "We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls."

...it's dark and we're wearing sun glasses. Hit it!

Yeah, but it will only be worth 10,000 because of inflation.

Inflation can be a biatch. When the stock market jumped in the early 80's I'm told it was mostly due to overall inflation, according to stock brokers who worked during that time. This was also an era when 15% on a mortgage was considered a good deal.

And the popping of that bubble would undoubtedly spell the end of the US as we know it today.

more likely then 100,000 is the fact that the DOW becomes completely irrelevant

I could see that happening

"It's a racket." "Those stock market guys are crooked."

-Al Capone

Is he betting on Chinese futures?

I'm not sure which is worse: the people who claim this sort of stuff (including the Dow 36,000) or those who claim complete economic ruination.

I get all the e-mails directed at a former coworker and she managed to use her work e-mail to sign up for dozens of right-wing mailing lists. Not a week goes by where Newsmax doesn't remind me that I need to buy a book from the people who predicted the housing bubble crash that claims we will see a 90% drop in the stock market and 50% unemployment by the end of the year and what I can do to survive it.

skammie: "We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls."



If you have not yet read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (the book, not the movie), run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore and buy it now.

CaptainWes: skammie: "We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls."

The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved then a man in the depths of an ether binge.

Leaving satisfied. My god could that man write.

Now is the best time in history to buy a home!

Jake Havechek: 7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 dwarves. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby.

Fabric_Man: run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore and buy it now

What's a "bookstore"? :-)

/haven't read it
//will do so soon

Quasar: Didn't Paul Ryan or some other prominent Republican talk about how the Dow would be like 25,000 in 2014 if his plan passed?

Nope.

the author neglected to mention that a loaf of bread would be a steal at $200 should the Dow (which is a meaningless indicator these days) rise to 100,000...at the rate we are printing Benny Bucks, both scenarios are a becoming increasingly likely.

As someone who just set up a 401k this year, I can only hope.

This could happen for sure. I mean, inflation is already at 10% and will probably stay that way thanks to Obama and the Fed. 20 years from now, a bag of rice will be $6,000, so the Dow being $100k is totally reasonable.

Does it matter what the DOW is at when most of us will be shooting each other over irradiated jars of mustard?

Unfortunately, since that clapped out bookie joint hasn't been playing with actual money for years, um, who will give a sh*t?

The guys running the con will leave with actual wealth, as usual.

The "companies" that are pretty much running on IOUs and a lot of shell game nonsense will have to come up with a product or implode. The speculators will bail early. The people who could have kept their money liquid will suck a big one.

As usual. And we seem to forget how the monkeyshines work every 10 years or so. I'm forever blowing bubbles...

Since the Dow was at 1000 20 years ago, and went down to 400 30 years ago, that would not surprise me.

The question is not the numerical score, but what it represents in terms of real money; lately not so much.

FTFA: He notes that the Dow Jones Industrial index gained around 10,000 points from year 1982 to 2000, and believes the feat could be repeated, with the blue-chip index reaching 100,000 in 20 years.

The reason it had such success in the 1990s? Supply and demand.

Rule 1 - if demand for a share, or shares in general, outstrips the supply ...those share prices go up. Works for anything else too (in-demand Christmas presents on eBay, the price of oil, the cost of renting a Ferrari over a Chevy Cavalier, etc.).

Rule 2 - the converse is also true. If demand's not too hot, if there's more supply than demand, the price falls (console and smartphone prices a generation or two after their initial release, anyone selling lead-paint toys from China at a yard sale).

Rule 3 - if there were some way that you could predict the future trends, you could try to play that system to make money (or you could soften the blow, losing less than you otherwise would have).

Before the 1920s, only the megawealthy were into the markets. Then, in the roaring 20s, the middle class started playing the markets. Millions of transactions that never happened before became commonplace. More companies were added to the index in the decade. See rule 1 - demand for shares outstripped supply. The DJIA went up and up and up. The quantity of people had a quality all its own.

But then the bubble burst, and people sold their shares. The Dow lost 90% of its former value by July 8, 1932. Rule 2 applied, and the market tanked. It took until 1954 for the Dow to reach its pre-10/29/29 high. That's a 25 year recession.

Rule 3 didn't apply. Nobody saw it coming, because it was unprecedented.

In 1972, the market hit 1,000. Just keep that in the back of your mind. In 1972, the DJIA hit 1,000 for the first time in its history.

Fast-forward to the early 1980s, and the introduction of the 401(k). Suddenly, you have millions of people that never owned a share certificate in their lives putting money in shares. Some astute people knew (rule 3) what happens when lots of people get into the system... demand outstrips supply (rule 1), so the astute piled in too. Under Reagan, the Dow rose over 250%. Not much happened under Bush I, but under Clinton the markets took off even more. The Dow Jones rose over 300%. In 1995 the market hit 5,000. In 1999 it hit 10,000.

But now we're looking at Rule 3 again. We know when these 401(k) investors will be pulling out of the market and creating another Rule 2 situation. Now... so picture a Baby Boomer. Invested in the market since the 401(k) was introduced. Saw an incredible return on their investments, over the long run. But it was what they were promised anyhow. You think they're leaving it all for their kids? Hell no!! Vegas is calling. Arizona. Florida. Somewhere warm. Somewhere sunny. Somewhere expensive.

In 1929, we saw what happened when a few hundred thousand people pulled out of the market. Now imagine a slow, steady, constant pull out of the market.

By FORTY ONE MILLION PEOPLE.

41,000,000 people with assets of an estimated $1.7 trillion (that's an average of $42,500 per person). Slowly pulling out of the markets. Do you think the markets will rise, or do you think they will lose value? Because you'll notice his "look how much it rises" spiel conveniently omits the last 11 years of reality.

For the market to not fall, demand needs to be found to counter the actions of these 41 million people. The only way THAT'S going to happen is if shares suddenly become really popular with younger people (Occupy xyz seems to say otherwise), or if if the money from an equally large group (the 38.2 million people with Medicare Part 'D' drug coverage, for example) could be put into the markets. That would buoy the system for years. Not get it up to 100,000.

So why claim 100,000 and why say 20 years? Enough of the retirement crowd will hesitate in selling off their shares. Just as they were promised the Dow 36,000 (see above) from Glassman of the American Enterprise Institute. It's either enabling the gravy train for the megawealthy that live off the super-low-taxed share dividends to go just a bit further. Or it's pump-and-dump (get people to open their wallets, inflate your stock prices, then dump yours just before it tanks again).

RumsfeldsReplacement: This could happen for sure. I mean, inflation is already at 10% and will probably stay that way thanks to Obama and the Fed. 20 years from now, a bag of rice will be $6,000, so the Dow being $100k is totally reasonable.

The Dow index isn't measured in dollars like that. You have no idea what you're talking about, do you son?

FeFiFoFark: You know what else the DOW can do? Fondle my balls while it sucks on my cock!

Good lord, we're lucky it's not at 10,000 right now. This unsustainable rate of inflation is not going to last.

The only way we're going to get to 100,000 is if a pandemic hits the world and kills of 1/3 of the population. I'm voting Swine Flu.

"We will bring prosperity back to the American people".

"How?"

"We will foster growth and job creation through tax breaks that will allow companies to start up and expand."

"You mean instead of just tossing it on a craps table on Wall St. like they always do and then allocating the amounts to harvest from us every f*cking Apr. for stuff like -

A
B
C
D
E
F
F
G
H
I
J ( federally mandated! )
K
L
M
N
O ( necessary for our global military strength! )
P
Q
R
S
T
U ( stop asking questions, citizen! )
V
W
X
Y
Z

F*ck only knows what else.

Until the coffers are even more negative empty, and we have to work harder, like Boxer, to replace it?

Again?

So you can gamble it away?

Again?

I got an idea.

Go f*ck your mothers and quit stuffing your faces out of our fridge.

Your gambling problem is starting to make it hard to feed my kids.

And them, I like.

You, not so much.

That is some serious inflation. Goldman Sachs is going to have to turn their HFT machines on full to pump the market up to that level. Especially since they're basically the only volume anymore.

What the entirety of the Wall St. business model might look like.

When the DOW is at 100,000 a loaf of bread will cost $300.

Count me out.

"Off to the bakery! Fear not, komrade. Glorious DOW is at all time high, soon to provide wealth to all!"