“New normal will mean living on a survival scale,” says Richard Russell

By Prieur du Plessis, on November 2nd, 2011 posted in: Investment, Markets, Money

Today’s quote du jour comes from 86-year-old Richard Russell, author of the Dow Theory Letters, who recently slipped and broke his hip. He tells the story from his hospital bed: “I’m dead tired. I’m looking for any excuse to get some rest. I take a shower, I slip on the soap suds below. My body comes slamming down to the floor. I can’t lift my left leg at all. Something is obviously broken. My assistant calls for an ambulance. I’m delivered to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. I have broken my hip and that same day I have a complete hip replacement.

“For three days I have post-surgery psychosis. I don’t know where I am, I can’t read newspapers, I have trouble recognizing anyone, including my children. On the 4th day I am lucid and sane once more.

“Meanwhile, the market is almost as chaotic as I am. Nothing really makes sense. A thousand stories and opinions invade the media. My own thinking is that the solution to this international mess is going to take years and the result will be a lower standard of living in the U.S. The idea of making money under our capitalistic system will change. The new focus will be how to avoid losing money. The new normal will be living on a survival scale. It will be slow and costly.”

Source: Richard Russell, Dow Theory Letters, November 1, 2011.

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