I was just reading that the New York Attorney General has turned his attention to drug companies drawing parallels between the abuses of wall st. analysts and the sales practices of these companies. He had taken action against Glaxo-SmithKline and Pharmacia and there are more to come. He says they have violated the fiduciary responsibility to the clients by giving improper inducement to doctors, he called them bribery, and he is trying to protect the consumer that has no idea of what is going on behind the scenes and is paying a price as they are manipulated.

I guess that you need a PhD to understand everything these days. 😦

Expectations are critical. The emotions of the market can’t be underestimated or avoided. I am still in the camp that it would take a series of events to change behavior to create a new lower equilibrium. We can’t discount the effect a major event would have and just because we have traditionally bounced back from single events doesn’t mean we will next time. In fact, if it were a terrorist act, it could be considered a continuation of current events which would fit with my position that it would take more than a single event. We just don’t know what straw will break the consumers back, if any.

The media surely do play a big role in the markets. See if you agree with my modification of this comment, “The media’s role is to provide information to the public in a truthful and timely manner” to “The media’s role is to make information interesting so to gain the largest possible viewership in order to sell advertising for the highest possible profit.” 🙂 Thoughts?