the dow jones averages are up almost 2,000 points in Obama's first year

[spanone]

dji 12/30/08...........8668.39

dji 12/30/09.........10,548.51

[aquart]

1. Am I supposed to be cheered by this?

[spanone]

it's great news for people living off their retirement monies...or 401 k's

or union investments....

[aquart]

64. That's sufficient, thanks.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

11. No, just cry in your soup like you always do.

[progressoid]

30. Yeah, all that money is going to tickle down to us.

:eyes:

[LanternWaste]

39. As it increases the net value

As it increases the net value of my 401(k), I am (by extension) cheered by this.

Your son of York has certainly cheered the winter of my discontent... :shrug:

[fascisthunter]

2. wow... great for Wall Street investors

[Better Today]

3. So f'ing what! Like its helping anyone who actually needed/needs help.

[spanone]

12. many retirees are helped by this...there money is returning to their retirement accounts

[Better Today]

18. And what good will that really do when the way the recovery is happening

pretty much guarantees a second collapse?

I'll give you "some" retirees, but I've read too much lately as to how ultimately they will be paying the most, particularly when so many of their pension plans were destroyed and are not being revived.

Furthermore, people with enough in their 401Ks or IRAs to actually consider them viable retirement income are usually pretty damn rich to start with, so my original comment still stands.

[spanone]

20. it helps many people....just because you have a 401k or ira does not mean you are rich by any means

[Better Today]

26. Misconstruing what I've said. I said 401k and IRAs big enough to make

a real retirement income. There are many with small retirement investment accounts, I don't see them as improving to an extent to make up for what's likely to be coming (another crash). Just my opinion, we won't know the reality for some time to come.

[quiller4]

55. What do you mean "pension plans destroyed"? Many were nearly wiped out

with the dramatic drop in the market but even those who suffered great losses are seeing their pension funds come back now. Only those individual investors who panicked and sold when the market was low are not helped by the rise in the markets.

My TIAA/CREF is modest but my CREF dropped enough in 2008 that my monthly pension payment was reduced by $89 this year. Now my CREF portfolio is worth almost what it was at the close of 2007 and my monthly income will go up by $75. I know that isn't a great deal but it is enough to cheer me and I'm sure other retirees that see their income rise in 2010 will be just as happy.

[girl gone mad]

51. "Retirees" should not be investing in equities.

That's simply not a good bet.

I would wager far more retirees are getting screwed by artificially low interest rates than are profiting from the stock market rally.

[IndianaGreen]

4. The investor class reaps the benefits of exploiting the working class

I feel so good already!

:puke:

[laughingliberal]

9. Me too! Very encouraging!

I'd have been ever so distressed if our ruling class was having to sacrifice anything.

Just can't seem to locate those pom poms. Damn!

[IndianaGreen]

14. I had to burn mine to heat up my flat

I am happy they are happy!

:crazy:

[jpak]

13. Anyone that has a 401K is a member of the "investor class"

and a 2000 point gain under Obama is better than the 6000 point loss under Bush

Lots of Americans in their late 50's are breathing easier about their retirement funds.

Viva Obama!

[laughingliberal]

36. Yeah, well, mine got withdrawn to keep the mortgage paid and eat for a few months

Not likely to see another one without a job. At 54, not likely to see another job, either.

But, yippee!

Added on edit: and no sign of that promise to forgive the penalties for early withdrawal, either, Guess the 'street' wouldn't have liked that one.

[jpak]

44. I suppose misery loves company - but it's no excuse for wishing others lose their IRAs as well

or for union pension funds to lose money too.

sorry

[laughingliberal]

45. I have no problem with people doing well in their retirement funds

But expecting most people who work for a living to throw a big party for Wall Street making a comeback is a little unrealistic, these days. Selling the workers on the idea of 401k's to replace pensions has not been a boon for most. To those for whom it worked, my hat's off to them. But after 30 years of stagnant/declining wages there's still a whole bunch out here who never had a percentage of their income to put back. More people living paycheck to paycheck every year. The current recovery on Wall Street is being mostly fueled by our money and it is not out of line to want to know when some of that prosperity might start making it down the pipeline. Thirty years of supply side shenanigans and we're still waiting for that trickle down effect.

[Thickasabrick]

5. BFD nt

[asdjrocky]

6. Yay for banksters.

[phasma ex machina]

49. Yay for brokers.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

7. and they still hate him.

[theoldman]

8. The DOW also went up when Bush was president.

It is too soon to tell. Wait about four more years.

[spanone]

10. i'll take what we have now, thank you.

[gratuitous]

15. Oh, that's not a valid measure anymore

It used to be very important when Bush was cutting taxes for the overrich to watch how it goosed the Dow, but it's not important anymore unless the number goes down. So this increase of more than 21% is not relevant to investor confidence, the strength of the market or the president's economic policies, which are all bad, bad, bad. Thus sayeth CNBC, and we all know how they're always right, right?

[spanone]

17. if a republican had 'caused' the dow to go up 2,000 pts. he'd be sainted

[TexasObserver]

16. Since he took office, the DJIA is up about 2100 points, about + 26%.

If a patient has hypothermia, it's a good thing when their body temperature rises. Likewise, when the DJIA rises, it's usually a good thing for the economic body of the country. All across America, millions of ordinary citizens with their life's savings tied up in a stock port folio or fund make their decisions based upon how well the stock market is doing.

The better the stock market, the more likely we are to see citizens spending and employers hiring. That it doesn't happen all at once is something lost on those who want all the pain to be over in an instant.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

19. It's good for my mom's retirement fund.

Thank God jackass and the snow queen got their asses kicked.

[FreakinDJ]

21. More then that - I bought back in at 6700

[spanone]

25. good for you...smart move

[FreakinDJ]

27. At the time all the Doom and Gloomers on DU gave me hell

Now that me accounts have grown over 26% for the year.....

[progressoid]

31. Yeah, I was going to buy too...

except that I have no money to actually invest.

[FreakinDJ]

42. Mine is a Wage contribution through my union

100% of the money is mine once I work the hour of labor - there is no vestment period

I have complete control in how the money is invested. I fact I merely go on-line and divide my money as I see fit across publicly traded mutual funds. And the money is TAX deferred - meaning it comes out of my check prior to taxes. I pay no taxes until the money is withdrawn from the account, and the way this country is headed I might be a citizen of a foreign country by then - so the money can be withdrawn tax free. Sorry, can't see paying taxes to fund corporations

[progressoid]

58. Cool. I'm self employed.

My benefits are non-existent and income has been dropping for the last decade.

[spanone]

32. flap jack flippin' genius in my book....that was the perfect time to buy.

[FreakinDJ]

41. Tell that to my retirement fund

[TexasObserver]

63. If you got in at 6700, you have had a 55% growth since March.

I got out of equities in January, 2008, and back in March, 2009, when the DOW dipped below 6700.

I expect a dip in the DOW in the first quarter of 2010, but I also expect that dip to be recovered no later than the end of the second quarter. Bottom line is I expect the DOW (as one index) to be at least 1000 points higher by November 1, 2010, than it is right now. That's a ten percent increase over current values.

The quick big gain is gone. That was the March to September upswing. Now we will likely see a long, slow increase in the DOW and other indices for the next several years.

The employment market remains very soft, and it's going to be a long, slow recovery, too. I am hopeful we see unemployment consistently below 10% by summer 2010. I believe the president must do more to address the lack of jobs, even if it means creating WPA II.

[Gabi Hayes]

35. never mind

[Goldstein1984]

22. The economy of the Haves is doing very well, now all we have to

do is wait for the trickle-down to the Have-Nots. (Hint: Don't hold your breath)

As far as my 401(k) and IRA accounts go, I had the benefit of a anti-establishment financial advisor who told us to pull out of stocks in January 2008, so we never lost a dime, in fact, we gained 2% during 2008. We attribute that good fortune to the lack of blind faith in "the system" of both our Edward Jones agent and ourselves.

Now, we're divested from stocks and we're staying that way. We're not worried about missing out on potential gains, we're making sure we don't experience future losses. We're also taking steps to reorganized our retirement savings, with some of it going to investments outside of "Uncle Sam's" reach.

By the way, our financial advisor was driven out of the investment agency she worked for because she gave the same sound economic advice to all of her individual clients. She wasn't bullish enough, and she made the other agents look bad.

G1984

[ddeclue]

23. So? It's all fake - the only stat that matters is unemployment.

[Better Today]

28. I agree, raise you . . . underemployement and stagnant wages also matter

[Egalitariat]

33. Historically, the order of recover is this:

1) Stock market rises
2) Profits rise
3) Unemployment lowers

If you're not rooting for rising stock market and rising profits, you are probably ignorant.

[Better Today]

34. Not ignorant, just noticing that those trends haven't ultimately

been particularly helpful as evidenced by the stagnant wages since the 70's.

JMO, but when the same path is chosen even though it has been proven to be less than suitable, I think a different path should be followed.

But hey, feel free to spout the status quo BS all you want.

[laughingliberal]

38. +1 nt

[Egalitariat]

59. FYI, from the tone of your post, I can tell that you're never going to make it

I'm sure you feel you have bad luck, and I'll go out on a limb and say it's not going to improve. I'd recommend giving up, but I suspect you're already there.

So I'll just say I'm sorry.

[laughingliberal]

37. Well, the big 'recovery' under Bush saw little job creation and what jobs were created were not the

caliber of the jobs lost. I don't expect we'll see a return to full employment again in my lifetime. The Bush recovery was the first recovery since WWII in which the workers did not share in the gains. So far, I see nothing to reverse that trend with this 'recovery.'

[Egalitariat]

60. The recovery is in its infancy. Unless you're a studied economist, and you're optimistic, I would

not expect you to have "seen anything to reverse that trend with this recovery".

Stop feeling sorry for yourself. It's getting better, and in a year or two, things will be good.

[laughingliberal]

61. I'm resigned to what has happened to my life and am not feeling sorry for myself

but I do feel sorry for those who have many more years to live in what this country is becoming. I spend many hours studying the the opinions of the studied economists and have not come to these conclusions based solely on my experience. I have watched the trends in this country since we started on this road of supply side trickery. I was fortunate to get out of nursing school just before Reagan decimated funding for higher education and was able to support myself that way until I hit the wall after years of stagnant/declining wages that have been the norm for most of the working class ever since Reagan. I hope things do get better and those with their lives ahead of them have a shot at turning things around here. But I do not think continuing the same policies which have transferred all the wealth to the top and destroyed the chance of upward mobility for workers is going to be the way to do it.

[Mari333]

24. I am going to buy some beluga caviar and a mink coat

let the rest of you peons eat Ramen noodles.

sarcasm.

[The Straight Story]

29. My stats would be up too if someone tossed me a few hundred billion :) (nt)

[laughingliberal]

46. My thoughts, exactly nt

[rug]

40. Is that to be the measure of his presidency?

[NNN0LHI]

56. If it had dropped 2000 points it sure would be

Even the ones complaining about it going up right now would be complaining if it had dropped.

No one is fooling anyone here.

Don

[rug]

57. If it had dropped 2000 points it would be the end of his presidency.

They wouldn't allow it.

[Nikki Stone1]

43. Well, considering his administration caters to Wall Street, this is no surprise

And some of that rise is the expectation of this health insurance bonanza of a bill.

[cornermouse]

47. The stock market is more or less a scam

And if you put your faith and hope into getting a return on investing in it, sooner or later you're mostly likely going to be out of luck and out of your investment.

[spanone]

48. most folks who invest in the long term prosper.

[cornermouse]

52. Tell that to my greatgrandfather who lost his in the 20s.

You remember the last crash?

My mother was lucky. She pulled her money out before this crash.

[spanone]

53. 80 years ago....so you will base you investments on what happened 80 years ago?

[cornermouse]

54. Did you already forget the crash we just had ?

And do you really believe that people suddenly become more ethical in the last few years than they were 80 years ago? Because I'm not that naive.

[phasma ex machina]

50. +1 Insiders profiting at the expense of outsiders.

[JoeyT]

62. Huzzah! Champagne, caviar, and a new boat for everyone!

Everyone that matters, anyway.
The rest of us can just FOAD.