Prescient?

When I decided to post my article yesterday, I had a feeling things were about to go south. But I didn't know it would happen the very next day! Obviously, by now you know that the DOW took a huge hit today, sparking a frenzy of panic as people started to talk about the looming credit crisis:

"Wall Street's deepening fears about a spreading credit crunch sent stocks plunging again Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrials extending their series of triple-digit swings and falling more than 380 points. The catalyst for the market's latest skid: a French bank's announcement that it was freezing three funds that invested in U.S. subprime mortgages." - Yahoo Finance

Another telling quote came later in the article:

"All the things that had been denied up until this point are unraveling. On top of this, retail sales were mediocre, which shows that indeed, the housing collapse is affecting the consumer."

Well, duh. I could have told you that. In fact, I did. Last year. But if you read my post about the stages of grief (see below), you'll see that various experts have been in the denial about the state of things for quite some time.

However, the fact that some of the more visible players are openly talking about the 'housing collapse' in the past tense is a good indication that we are finally moving out of denial. Unfortunately - and perhaps ironically - the next stage is depression.

Either way, a lot of interesting things should play out in the next few weeks.

Stay tuned!