The Dow Industrials is one of the worst indicators to use for overall market performance. It is price-weighted and only includes thirty companies that can be changed out at anytime. The Dow Jones Wilshire index of 5000 securities may be a better index because it is weighted based on market cap and is intended to measure the performance of all publicly traded companies including REITs and limited partnerships.

@fjblau - HA!

@fjblau - CameraTalk just slowed pitched that softball to you.

The current administration is pulling out all the stops. Oil up $25 today, bailout package by the weeks end, and hyperinflation on the horizon.

Just e-mailed my state senators, but this BS bailout bill will pass anyway. Rupublicans=Socialists.

OBAMA in 08

Nice article I pulled from the Barry Ritholtz Big Picture Blog

"There is a term in political philosophy to describe a government takeover of a critical industry: That term is socialism. The government is telling us that capital and credit markets cannot, for several reasons, solve the current crisis on their own—only the federal government and its massive taxpayer base have the authority and the resources to solve it. That is state socialism: the philosophy preached by the founders of the Second International, by the radical wing of the American labor movement, through the formation of the Soviet Union and its satellites, and now by Henry Paulson.

Like the ownership society, socialism is also a compelling vision; just look at the logic of the Paulson-Bernanke plan. There are several financial institutions that have brought themselves nearly to extinction by acquiring a cornucopia of toxic assets, ultimately related to mortgages. Those assets might be worth what the banks thought they were worth, and they might be worth nothing; it's hard to know because the market for them in many instances has disappeared

http://tbm.thebigmoney.com/articles/judgments/2008/09/21/henry-paulson-socialist

Tonight, I listened to a really good interview on the Bush bailout plan and why it is wrong. NPR interviewed the former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, a Republican, who is in totally disagreement with the Bush administration on this plan. There was some good insight regarding the motivation behind it and just how intertwined the players are. Read the transcript for yourself at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94900671

You are forgetting dividends (similar to interest). That is a material component of total return.

In 1965, the DOW was about 900, and in 1982, it closed at 1,047

Compare that to a bond that bought for $1,000 in 1965 that matured in 1982 for $1,000.

Which is better? You can't answer that until you know what dividends were paid on the DOW stocks vs. what is the interest rate on the bond.

In order to compare returns to inflation, you will need to know the Total Return on the DOW, which includes dividends.

@slaustin62 - 

@slaustin62 -