From my antique copy in two volumes of The World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary, Clarence L. Barnhardt, Editor in Chief, c.1963 -- written before Slick Willie Clinton started changing The meaning of English Words…
Dow: verb, meaning to be able, to thrive,
to do well, from the Old English and from Scottish Usage, with past tenses
of dowed or dought… an adjective of the verb is doughty meaning Brave,
valiant, strong, with synonyms of stout, worthy, formidable. Adverbs include
doughtily meaning in a doughty manner, and the noun doughtiness means doughty
quality or bravery.
Hummm… I guess Sir William Wallace
was a doughty heart…. Did you know that, Mel?
Now, here’s where defining DOW gets really interesting…
My classic World Book has another definition of dow….. a bastard anglo-manipulation of an Arabic word daw, but in English, dow or dhow… which means a ship with lateen sails, used along the coast of Arabia, India, and the east coast of Africa… in Arabic it is daw with a long a…. How ‘bout that? Smell the fish in the Indian Ocean? Visions of Jumpin’ Jesus Raines walking on a little bit of GSE turf (aka, H-2-Oh!) here? Ship? Boat? Royal Mail Ship? A parallel universe!
When the market collapsed during 2000 to 2002, Greenspan finally recognized the seriousness of the situation -- worse, he realized how stupidly wrong he had been as a cheerleader for the biggest speculative stock market bubble in US history. Greenspan later lamely explained that bubbles can only be recognized after they had burst. This brought a laugh from Wall Street sophisticates.
But Greenspan knew what to expect after a great speculative bubble bursts. Greenspan has little instincts for the markets, but he does know his market history. After a great speculative bubble bursts, history tells you to expect a recession or worse.
What to do? Greenspan knew that if a recession hit, he would be blamed for it, blamed because instead of raising stock margins back in late-1996, instead of raising interest rates, instead of pressing against the wind as he should have, he opened the floodgates of money creation and allowed the bull market to literally "blow its top." Thus, Greenspan knew that his reputation would be destroyed if a recession and probably a severe recession hit, following the stock market collapse.
So to protect his legacy, Greenspan decided to "hold off the bear," at least hold off the bear until he was out of office. This would require driving interest rates down to a 45 year low, holding them there, and flooding the system with the greatest ocean of liquidity in US history. This, decided a desperate Greenspan, would save his legacy. As background, Greenspan would justify his position by insisting that the US was in danger of dreaded deflation, and that he, as chairman of the Fed, was there to see that it didn't happen. November 15, 2003 – Richard Russell Comments, from http://www.dowtheoryletters.com, used by permission, and with great thanks!
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Picture Alan Greenspan with cane, spats, top hat, and tales singing “Paper Moon” in the lobby of Chase Manhattan Bank in NYC tap dancing like Fred Astaire, while McTeer hands over the keys to countless Link-Kon Ale-Gator SUVs, and that other JackAssets, Bernanke is running off new counterfeit bills on an antique Gutenberg printing press behind the teller windows… the audience cheers…”Hurray at JPChase!”
Then in saunters the Pink Ever-Ready Bunny in shades beating
on a drum and circles around Greenspan as he taps and sings and frolics….
Then in comes the dancing Hippos from Disney’s 1940 Fantasia,
and the music cuts to the “Sugar Plum Fairy” by Tchaikovsky… as the Hippos
pirouette in ballerina costumes, pink of course, tutus jigglin’ like Jelly
Roll Morton’s fingers doing “King Porter Stomp.”
While McTeer reaches for another bag of SUV keys, this
time to those Hummer-Dinger-Swingers which are all Canary Yellow like in
the Bubblevision CNBC commercials by the way…
Bernanke slips more ink on the press…. As the 4 BMW flying
cherubs swirl around the press, holding hands and talking to themselves
on their communicators, as the JackAssets slops some ink on the Flying
Cherub from the Driver’s Side. Yahoo!
High on Monetary Cocaine and speculative DAW fever, Tinker Bell starts zipping and zagging around the top hat, Tap Dancing Peter Pan breaks in a Minstrel Show Riverboat Shuffle, while the Munchkins of every size, sex, and shape from Wizard of Oz form a Chorus Line behind our regular FED$peak Astaire forming the Munchkin Rockettes, as the stage goes into a combined medley of “Hi-Ho!,” “ When You Wish Upon a Star,” and “Take the A Train”…
It starts to get really crazy when Poppa and all the Smurfs march en-masse in the big revolving door as a sea of blue to the front lobby, and low and behold here comes Shrek and the rest of the cast of characters from Fantasy Land, and the whole entourage breaks into “Over the Rainbow.”
The Pièces of Eight de résistance (See Also: Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr.), occurs when in walks Jumpin’ Jesus Raines from Fannie Mae, which also a candy, and he starts levitating on the water at the big fountain, left of center stage… handing out fannie maes…. I mean candy…. Like Santa Claus in the Macy’s Christmas Parade. This may be the real Miracle of 34th Street?
The Boat has never-never landed in a Clintonian defined definition of IS/WAS/HAS BEEN 4. Bear (unpleasant-difficult) black market? IS/WAS/HAS BEEN, or FALSE ALARM?
“Welcome to Hollywood… What’s Yo’ Dream?????
I mean Fantasy Land!
I mean Wall Street!
“Good night, George…”
“Good night, Gracie…”
See: Should the Fed React to the Stock Market?