Dow 11,349.28

By Ken Silverstein

James Glassman and Kevin Hassett published Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting from the Coming Rise in the Stock Market on September 20, 1999, an event which almost immediately triggered a drop in stock prices from which the market has never recovered. After today’s sharp drop to 11,349, the market stands 526 points above its close roughly nine years ago when the book came out.

That’s a gain of about 0.5 percent annually since Glassman and Hassett issued their bullish proclamation. Investors would have done better putting their money in a savings account (and almost as well leaving it under the mattress).

I checked out the Dow 36,000 Amazon web page today. Customers who had searched for the book were pointed to a couple of other classics: Dow, 30,000 by 2008: Why It’s Different This Time, by Robert Zuccaro (2001), and Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust–And How You Can Profit from It, by David Lereah (2006).

Buy them together and save.