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About 88% of brokerages and 74% of advisers in the U.S. have faced cyberattacks, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission report released in February. A major U.S. bank suffers an attack every 34 seconds, according to testimony from a Congressional hearing in June.
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I don't like the flashy and loud style of Jim Cramer. I don't watch his show. I try not to pay attention to him, and I never buy a stock based on his recommendation. That said, I found this on Yahoo! Finance, which I do read every day, and discovered that I agree with Jim Cramer about something:
One of the worst myths out there is that the market is always rational and makes sense. Cramer knows this is not true; on any given day the market can be totally wacky for reasons that do not make sense. Sometimes stocks go up when they should have gone down, and sometimes entire sectors move for ridiculous reasons.
"Never assume that just because something happened, it has to make sense because the market is always supposed to make sense. That's nonsense," Cramer added.
"The worst mistake, the most common mistake you can make these days, is to say that because a particular stock or commodity trades at a given level, it therefore deserves to trade there. Often, that is just fiction now," Cramer said.
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In 1958 the stock markets yield dropped below the yield of bonds. It stayed that way for fifty years. Until now.
From Stocks vs. bonds by Mark Hulbert:
But what is the "proper" relationship between bond yields and dividend yields? Is today, along with the period prior to 1958, "normal" -- and the last 50 years the exception? Or is it just the opposite.
The memory of the Great Depression lingered for years after it ended, for example, which is one reason why stocks' dividend yields remained so high.
In contrast, the Baby Boom generation (at least possibly until now) had no traumatic memory similar to their parents' memory of the Great Depression. That in turn helps to explain why stocks' dividend yield slipped in the 1960s and beyond, relative to bonds' yields.
The bottom line? If enough investors become sufficiently traumatized by what's going on right now, and as a result more or less permanently expect stocks' volatility to remain a lot higher than bonds' volatility, then stocks' dividend yield is likely to remain above bond yields.
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Is it the end of the world?
From Time To Batten Down The Hatches by Thomas C. Scott:
My general advice to everybody is the same: Start, right now, battening down the hatches. We're in for an extended period of financial stress and readjustment. I tell clients that even if they think they're OK; even if they can pay their bills; even if their companies have no foreseeable layoffs; they should take steps right now to secure their immediate and long-term futures.Or is it an opportunity to make some money?
Cut out discretionary spending, downsize, think twice about that new car. If you're having trouble with house payments, give it up now. Walk away and let it go into foreclosure. This is not going to end quickly.
If anything, the Wall Street Panic of 2008 means you have an even better chance of seeing some extraordinary long-term returns.
In other words, the more the overall market has been hammered, the better your chances of profiting as it recovers.I’m listening to the voices of experience here (the youngster at 78) and here (the other youngster at 94). I have a feeling that they know what they are talking about.
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