On the year-end lists of 2008 catchphrases, we’ve noticed an omission: “since the Great Depression.” The phrase has been appearing everywhere, including today’s Financial Times. How bad was the year in stocks? The worst since the Great Depression. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones lost a greater percentage of their values than in any year since 1931, shedding 39.3 and 34.7 percent respectively. The Japanese and European markets had their worst years ever. More grim financial news: the U.S. consumer confidence index fell to 38, much lower than economists expected and down from 90.6 one year ago.
Read it at The Financial Times
