Quit worrying about worst-case US scenarios
Diehards conversation 54796, titled “Some plausible worst-case USA scenarios?”, raised some questions about investing in the US stock market. The issues raised included terrorism, inflation and loss of confidence in the US dollar.
Response #6 was a great reply from Taylor:
I have been around for 82 years and am able to take a longer view. In my opinion, the risks today seem to me to be a lot less critical than in the past.
World War II killed about 50 million people before we knew the free world would survive. Nevertheless, the U.S. stock market continued its upward trend.
I remember the cold war when we were fearful that Russia would release thousands of nuclear rockets at American cities. The U.S. stock market continued upward.
The Cuban missile crisis was very real; especially to me in South Florida where Cuba is a lot closer than New York. U.S. stocks continued to climb.
Remember the Year 2000 computer “meltdown” which never happened. We did have an unrelated bear market which is largely recovered.
I am not saying that something catastrophic could not happen — it can. However, history and personal experience strongly suggests to me that it is not worth worrying about.
A final thought: It is only money. There is not much we can do about it except diversify and stay-the-course.
Thanks for putting things into perspective Taylor!
Stumble it!
