The stock market is one, among a number, of leading indicators of the U.S. economy. Other such indicators include: new orders for both nondefense capital goods and also for consumer goods; consumer confidence; building permits for new homes; retail sales; and initial claims for unemployment insurance. The strength or weakness of those pillars of the economy are harbingers of future growth or decline in the GDP.

Wikipedia may not be “Gospel;” however, I support it faithfully with an annual donation at this time of year, because it is an excellent and instantaneous resource. I find it of particular value when I’m researching matters of history. According to Wikipedia, “the first known Christmas card was sent by Michael Maier to James I of England and his son Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1611…

For more than fifteen years, during the 1980s and 1990s, I spent a considerable amount of time in the Citibank offices in Geneva, Zurich, Lugano, Paris and London, with occasional visits to Barcelona and Madrid. No less than a dozen times a year, I’d fly across the Atlantic for a seven-to-ten-day trip packed with meetings, and more meetings; wonderful meals and equally wonderful wine;, and great opportunities to shop (when the U.S. dollar was strong.) I never tired of those sojourns—wanderlust is part of my DNA.