The Lofty Dow Is No Cause to Rejoice

Regarding “Dow’s New Height Not as Giddy as the Last One,” Oct. 4:

Evidently, the economy is a little more challenged than you think. The Dow has hit new highs, but with inflation taken into account, it still needs to rise 16% to match its 2000 peak.

We don’t still live in the marketplaces of 2000, when housing, food, gasoline and a host of other products were selling for much, much less than we pay today. So the celebration is much too premature.

Don’t count on the Dow growing 16% anytime soon.

Jamie Wagoner

San Francisco

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Ford Motor Co. cutting 30,000 more jobs. General Motors Corp. losing money on each car it sells. Our manufacturing capability evermore lost to foreign powers.

Respect for the U.S. sagging worldwide. Civil strife in the Middle East never worse. Thousands of American soldiers returning maimed -- or not at all.

Personal debt rising and savings dropping. The value and buying power of the U.S. dollar diminished by fearsome national debt, indenturing our kids several generations out.

But the U.S. stock market, God bless, continues to set all-time records.

Could this presage a 1929-like crash? Did the fall of Rome begin this way?

Roger A. Wells

Manhattan Beach