If you’re still worried that your investments are doomed and will never go back up again, here are yet more lessons of history. In fact, 120 years-worth. It shows that, since 1900, there have been 103 years of ‘bull’ markets when everything’s gone up, on average for around 8 years; and just 16 ‘bear’ years, like this, lasting on average just 16 months. Past performance is no guide etc. But it’s a glimmer of hope that one bit of what’s going on will more than likely be alright in the end.
If you’re mad enough to be heading to an airport this height-of-summer-season, you’ll face the ‘which queue to join’ dilemma. Those old enough to remember having to go to a bank of a lunchtime (yes, kids, they had actual staff whom you had to talk to to get money)
Diesel at my local filling station now costs over £7.50 a gallon (kids etc.). Not my problem these days, but I’m sadly old enough to remember the furore in the 1970s when the price went up to 50p a gallon.
There haven’t been any ‘markets plummet, £billions wiped of the value of your savings’ headlines this year. I guess there’s been other stuff going on to keep the headline writers busy. However, markets have fallen, the FTSE World index is down by more than 8% since...