the bear market in equities that should have started in 2000 with the crash of the NASDAQ was averted by some very heavy-handed manipulation

I am referring to 9/11 (let it happen or make it happen – take your pick) which kicked off the ‘war on terror’ and its related spending (don’t forget that the markets had already dropped significantly when 9/11 occurred), dropping interest rates to 1% in the US, having Japan flood the world with yen borrowed at almost 0% interest, creating a raft of new financial instruments (derivatives) that nobody really understands, etc

to point to the 2000 bubble as the one example of a mania that doesn’t conform to history would be a little bit premature at this point

I would also mention that, whan priced in gold, the Dow is down about 50% from where it was in 2000 – the sheeple don’t realize this so they think the markets are near all time highs

history books of the future will point to this era as the classic example of a financial mania and its blowoff – hopefully the history books will also be able to write that we finally learned the fiat money lesson and strung all the bankers up from the nearest trees