... the fictional MAD Magazine character whose famous quotation was 'what, me worry ? "



(snip)"investors should be extremely cautious when majority opinion swings too far in one direction. In each of the following instances stocks declined substantially shortly thereafter.



July 3, 1929—“Moody’s says returns are in line with industrial activity.”



October 16, 1929—“Fisher sees stocks permanently high” (New York Times). Irving Fisher was the leading economist of the time.



November 2, 1968—“The Boom That Won’t Stop” (Business Week)



December 1, 1972—In 1973 Bulls Will Control the Market. (Business Week)



January 1, 1973—“Not a Bear Among Them” (Barron’s Annual Roundtable).



January 10, 1977—“Our Year-End Panel Sees a Further rise in Stocks.” (Barron’s)



October 26, 1987—Why Greenspan is Bullish” (Fortune) Edition was issued before the October 19 crash.



September 1999—“Dow 36,000: The Right Price For Stocks” (Atlantic Monthly)



April 27, 2000—“…relax, the over-all market probably won’t tank” (Business Week)



The stock market often undergoes a final solid rally prior to a cyclical peak as investors tell themselves that an economic slowdown is only temporary and will shortly reverse to the upside. They generally stick to this forecast until the signs of recession or hard landing become obvious to all. As former Fed Governor Edward Gramlich recalls the situation in late 2000, “everything was pointing up and, all of a sudden, everything started pointing down.” Of course, to those paying more attention to leading indicators than to coincident and lagging indicators, everything was not pointing up, and they are not pointing up today."(snip)