Washington Post recaps the year in the markets:

- Wall Street rang out its worst year since the Great Depression yesterday, leaving shareholders $6.9 trillion the poorer.
- In Germany, stocks were down 40 percent, in Japan, 42 percent, in Brazil, 41 percent. Taken together, all of the world’s stocks lost 48% last year.
- The Dow Jones industrial average, an index of 30 blue-chip stocks, and the S&P, a broader index watched by market professionals, were down 34 percent and 38 percent, respectively, their deepest losses since the 1930s.
- The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index was down 41 percent, its worst year since the exchange was created in 1971.
- The Dow closed yesterday at 8776.39, while the S&P closed at 903.25.
- The Nasdaq closed at 1577.03.
- The market for crude oil was simply unlike anything we’ve ever seen: after surging to $147 a barrel in the summer, prices tumbled to $44.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday, falling 70% from its peak and finishing down about 50% for the year. Had Israel not bombed Gaza in its latest misadventure, I am fairly certain the price would be even lower. While long term demand for oil remains bullish (not that you could tell given the 2008 chart), some are fearing that it could slide all the way down to $25 if the economy gets worse.

What more can we say?  Apart from very conservative and wildly diversified investment funds (that I cannot sell anyway), I sold my last stock in May and boy-oh-boy do I count my blessings.

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