wtever, I can't believe that this rally is finishe, page-22

Cultural issues in japan have caused downfall and slowed recovery. In particular corruption at higher levels as this is an aspect of traditional Japanese society. Their economy is said to be systemically rats##t. Almost reform of business attitude in this learning experience is required to alter their scenario. this takes along time. The US is in danger of falling into a similar economic position, perhaps not as bad or not as protracted but for different reasons. Patriotism and the American dream can cause inspirational rallies with favourable monetary and fiscal intervention but they are simply not sustainable without underlying earnings growth. Can anyone honestly tell me that the US market could sustain higher PE's than it has at present with investor confidence shot. The integrity of their capital markets has come into question recently(ENRON etc.) and in this way they are similar as Japan, though it is not as bad. (However US politics and big business is very closely linked. i undestand Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, the options he still holds would skyrocket if they went into Iraq after the war.) If the faith is lost the sentiment can take along time to come around.