I agree that Herf can be annoying; but he is NOT alone in his technical analysis. It took about $2 trillion federal dollars (the bailout plus treasury lending) to keep us from having a pre-election bank meltdown and we still lost Bear, Lehman, WAMU, Indiemac, Freddie, Fannie, and pretty much AIG and Wachovia. Americans bought 17 million new autos ~3 years ago.....we are likely to finish 2008 purchasing only 11 million and 2009 is forecast to be worse. Mastercard and Federal Express both posted losses which (given the interest rates they charge) can only mean that the citizenry is too poor to pay their bills, which gives me little hope for a recovery in housing where most of the builders are on the verge of bankruptcy. It is a lot worse in the Ukraine, Belarus, Argentina (the nitwhit they elected is worsening that situation by the day), and Turkey. Everybody else is feeling the effects to one degree or another. Even the Chinese economy is slowing some. I am not ready too jump on the depression band wagon; but I don't believe that the stock market hit bottom at 8400 and we haven't felt the effects of all these layoffs yet on corporate profits. 2009 is going to be a very bad year. Is it going to be a 1929??? I don't think so; but I think there are few left alive who will remember a worse year economically