>>And yes, bowing automatically to common or expert wisdom is not my forte - I also realize that this trait kept me sometimes from investments which would have been smart.
LOL, nor mine!
My issue is that if Dow is to be a crude barometer for economic trajectory, then it doesn't make sense to wait until it reaches record highs before suddenly picking at faults that have been well understood for decades. The consensus (with apologies to Churchill) has been that the Dow is the worst form of economic barometer apart from all the other forms that have been tried from time to time. ;-)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
