Thought this was fitting. From Comstockfunds. It's Always Something "Ever since the market peaked in March 2000 the permabulls have stuck to their optimistic story, always finding some extraneous event to blame for the market’s decline rather than admit the real reason—the highly negative consequences of the bursting bubble and excessive valuations. Now it’s the turn of the Iraqi situation to shoulder the blame for the market's woes, although it’s just an excuse to avoid facing the impact of a staggering economy, disappointing earnings and record high valuation. You know who these permabulls are—you see them constantly on financial TV and see them quoted in the press. When the market first started to turn down in early 2000 the pundits blamed the fall of the low-quality dot-coms, and stated that the rest of the technology sector would hold up well. (They conveniently overlooked the fact that they were previously enthusiastic supporters of the dot-coms). When the higher-quality technology stocks also began to head down, the bulls asserted that the remainder of the market would still be ok. As stocks continued to fall the bulls blamed it all on the contested presidential election, and said that all would be well once the contest was decided.
In January 2001, when the Fed lowered rates for the first time in the down-cycle, the bulls asserted confidently that the market had nowhere to go but up. After all, wasn’t this all proven by the past record? As we all know now—and as we predicted then—the market continued on its downward path. When the September 11 attacks rocked the nation and roiled the market the bulls were quick to blame the bear market on the attacks and said the bull market would begin once things returned to a semblance of normal.
The market did rally for a few months, but then failed and sunk to new lows. This time the culprit was Enron , Arthur Andersen, WorldCom and the entire corporate governance mess. Once again the bulls declared that there was nothing wrong fundamentally—it was only those corporate crooks. After we reformed corporate governance and investors forgot about it, the market would, of course be off to the races.
The market, however, has not cooperated and is falling once again—only this time with a new excuse. If only the Iraq situation was settled the market could find its true path and go onward and upward. The bulls believe that they have not been wrong throughout this entire decline--that they merely have had the bad luck to be hit by a series of seemingly unpredictable and unrelated events. In our view this is a self-serving and obviously wrong interpretation of what has happened and what is happening now. The market is in a severe downtrend as a result of the bursting bubble and the serious structural imbalances it has left in its wake. The downtrend will not end as long as investors continue to delude themselves and deny the true reasons for second worst bear market in U.S. history"
