New or Forgotten

"There is nothing new - except what is forgotten"  Rose Bertin

I found this quote in a book I am reading - "This Time is Different - Eight Centuries of Financial Folly" by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff.  As the stock market goes down, and the politicians play their sound byte games, it is interesting to hear the talking heads try to put cause and effect to the randomness of our emotional investing behavior and then speculate on whether we are in a recession; is inflation coming; etc

I liked Newt Gingrich's humourous  repeat of Ronald Regan's quote in the Republican debate last night -  "When your brother-in-law is unemployed it is a recession;  when you're unemployed it is a depression;when Jimmy Carter is unemployed it is a recovery".

It is so easy to forget how one felt Sept. and Oct. 2008 when the financial calamity came to the stock market's attention.  That is why I have investment journals to remember the emotions of that time.  Is it different today three years later.

Hmm.....  "There is nothing new - except what is forgotten."