[apropos, Thurow on the stock market; full article @
http://www.crn.com/sections/news/top_news.asp?RSID=CRN&ArticleID=20154#RESTO
FSTORY
CRN_ The tech sector is only 8 percent of GNP but plays a much larger role
in the stock market. How much of a danger is that to the economy, especially
if earnings fall short of estimates and tech stock prices take a dive?
THUROW_ If you look at the dot-com stocks, they collapsed and nothing
serious happened. They're all one-third or one-quarter of what they were in
March. And nothing serious has happened because, in fact, 90 percent of the
stock market is owned by the top 10 percent of the population.
Stock markets are kind of fluff on the top. They're the whitecap, so to
speak. It's kind of nice when you've got a rising tide, and it's not so nice
when you've got a falling tide. But they don't bring economies down. We saw
it in 1987. The stock market went down like 40 percent in two days, and you
wouldn't have known it in 1988.
