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titled tonight’s market summary "Bear Market" as the official declaration that the United States market is now in a bear market.

We do not know who came up with the 20% figure for the declaration of a bear market, but we already knew we were in one, no question about it.  We were among the first to say we were entering a bear market back in November 2007. We are proud of our analysis and of our calls on the market and economy. But, we are sad that so many people are losing money, even those who understood the implications of a bear market.  They just sat watching their investments losing money, month after month.

This brings me to tonight’s main topic: the public perception of the stock market. Most people own stocks because they have 401K savings plans, IRA’s, pension plans, mutual funds, and so on. Their only knowledge of the stock market is what they see on the nightly news and in the quarterly statements that are mailed to their homes. These people have been witnessing significant declines, as a whole, in their savings. But, they just leave it and keep saying that it will eventually come back. They may even call the bank that holds their 401K or IRA and ask what they should do. The banks will give them a typical statement such as "fluctuations in the market are normal, good time to add to your positions", or some other line of crap. Banks and financial institutions DO NOT HAVE YOUR INTEREST AS THE NUMBER 1 PRIORITY. Their priority lies with their firms and keeping capital in their accounts. This is how the system works, period. This is not a conspiracy theory, it is the way the system works. When it comes to money, it all comes down to keeping more of it for yourself. A bank or investment firm makes THEIR money from leveraging against the money you give them. If you take your money away from them, then you reduce their earnings capability.

Last year I published a letter on our site that was sent to a relative. The letter was from a bank that handled investments for their clients. In the letter, the author stated that the market was simply going through a normal correction, and that you should "turn off the TV and go read a book". Yep, that is what the bank actually advised their clients to do. They wanted them to remain ‘in the dark’ to what was going on in the world and not to worry. The bank clearly wanted to make sure that their clients did not cash out their investments. Even back then we were becoming aware of the problems that banks were having with capital, and the need to get more of it. So what did this one particular bank tell their clients.. they told them to "not worry", "this is a normal correction", "everything will be fine", "turn off the TV and go read a book or take a nice walk". In other words, don’t educate yourself on what is happening in the markets, leave your money with us, and give us more.