Oh, nothing - except that nothing's worth anything any more! Vera, Auntie Mame

Truth be told, even though my degree's in business, most of my knowledge about economics and finance comes straight from It's a Wonderful Life:

But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter. And what's wrong with that?

Why . . . Here, you're all businessmen here. Doesn't it make them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers?

You . . . you said . . . What'd you say just a minute ago? . . . They had to wait and save their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Wait! Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they're so old and broken-down that they . . . Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars?

Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about . . . they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?

Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book he died a much richer man than you'll ever be!

But, I gotta say that this AP story that I found in an online issue of Newsweek and that appeared in my Sunday paper (Asbury Park Press) ... uh, I hope to God there aren't investors to whom this stuff is news!

All that Money You've Lost -- Where Did it Go?:

The notion that you lose a pile of money whenever the stock market tanks is a "fallacy."

But something is different this time around:

"If you had it all in financial stocks and they've all gone down by 80 percent—sorry! That is a permanent loss because those folks aren't coming back."