How To Build Wealth During Turbulent Stock Markets, Part I
There is Much Greater Geo-Political Instability Today than 20 Years Ago
In mid-2006, the global markets corrected a great deal. In the U.S., the Dow plummeted 4%, the Nasdaq about 6%, and the S&P 500 about 5% in a single week. European stocks posted their biggest drop since May 2003, and the FTSE 100 in the UK had its biggest two-day loss in 3 years. And that was just the beginning of very turbulent times in the global stock market that destroyed billions of dollars of capital. On the other hand, during this time, in Asia, the HK Hang Seng index was up 22% for the year, the South Korean index was up 55%, the Australian markets were up 31%, and China was up 50% over their 12-month lows.
Then for the rest of the year, the U.S. and global markets grew even further and almost every investor had long forgotten about these drops until a historic 9% single day drop in the Shanghai markets triggered a global market decline in the 1st Quarter, 2007 (though the explanation truly is not this simple).
When we experienced the first drop in 2006, the U.S. was allocating $2 billion to shore up its...