Markets have been hit harder -- and survived
October 10, 2008
The markets have been hit by the financial equivalent of the neutron bomb. It has left the companies standing but destroyed the value of the shares that represent their businesses.
Either the financial world as we know it is coming to an end -- or it's not! We'll only know in hindsight. But unless this is the proverbial "black swan" -- the unimaginable and unique event that annihilates capitalism -- this panic will subside.
It's impossible to predict how low markets will go. But since stocks represent real assets, at some point cooler heads will decide there is value at these lower prices. When that happens, we'll look back on this as the sale of the millennium.