What stock market history can tell us

Gordon Brown said he had consigned boom and bust to history. But since then, we've had nothing but boom and bust. And history indicates that it's likely to be a few years yet before markets return to their highs.

The purpose of the threesixty newsletter is to explain how what's going on impacts upon investment opportunities and investment decisions. Thus, we don't usually waste time talking about politicians.

However, when New Labour came to power, shortly afterwards, Gordon Brown declared that New Labour would banish boom and bust. Since then the stock market has known nothing else but boom and bust. From May 1997 until 2000, FTSE enjoyed a boom; then from 2000 to 2003 suffered a huge bust, followed by another boom from 2003 to 2007, followed by another bust from 2007. Over the entire period of this Labour government, ignoring the gyrations, it moved down from 4425 to 4168.

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