My response to Birinyi's pollyannaish "Invest Like its 1982" in the WSJ

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB127687523498807499.html#top-of-comments

Eden Rahim wrote: (your comment)

In 1982, Birinyi cites October 3rd Times, but that was only 6 weeks after the August 16th market low and still 3 months BEFORE the economy actually bottomed and recession ended. So in some ways the Times article was justified. The equivalent period this cycle would be early May 2009 - six weeks after the market low - not 15 months after the market low that he's invoking now.

Secondly, in 1982 unlike now, after economy bottomed in December 1982 & 5 months after the market lifted off, the unemployed #s began to plunge, falling 1.7 million people in 8 months in 1983. Now however, 15 months after the low, the decline in unemployment remain elusive. In fact 15 million remain unemployed. There is perhaps good reason this time to suspect the system is broken and cause for concern.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/UNEMPLOY?cid=12