I find it more than a little disturbing the way these sorts of threads go, somebody mentions the market is up and within a couple posts people are talking Bush, Clinton, and Haliburton?
The stock market hasn't gone up since 2000, the value of your money has gone down.
Commodities have outperformed stocks every year for the last several years, including this one.
Dow 3.7%
Gold 10%
Silver 30%
YTD
Metals have significantly outperformed the market THIS YEAR. Silver is up 150% over the last three years against the weakening dollar, gold 100%, oil 100%+, food 100%+, housing 100%+ in many markets, mine included, base metals are also outperforming stocks.
The M3 and fed repurchase numbers are no longer public information as of this month. Why this isn't the topic of all discussion at the moment escapes me, I can only assume most of the people either don't know about it or don't understand what it means.
Our new Fed chairman is quite possibly the most dangerous economist on the planet, he makes Keynes look like Mises. Our last treasury secretary left the post because he couldn't stomach "deluding the people, pandering to the lowest common denominator" His words, and so we got somebody who didn't mind, John Snowjob.
We're borrowing 30% of GDP every year in new debt, public and private inclusive.
The money supply has doubled since the 2000 bubble bath.
Real wages are declining, that's a fact. Debt to income ratios are rising from already record levels in every sector of this economy. We croseed into uncharted territory on this metric in the 90's, breaking the record set in 1929. This fact has been offset by the asset inflation we've seen, but the moral hazard involved is staggering if you really understand what's happening.
Stocks may well be a decent place to put your money (some stocks more than others!), certainly better than debt instruments or coastal RE this year, but lets keep the big picture in mind. You can live beyond your means for a long while if the bank is willing to raise your credit card limits continouously, but eventually somebody gets shafted.