At that point, the Dow was on its way down from an all-time high of 14,164, set in October 2007. It had another 4,000 points left to shed before hitting bottom - a 12-year low of 6,547 set in March 2009.
That was not long after then-neophyte President Obama engineered a government takeover of two of Detroit's Big Three automakers and Congress passed $800 billion in stimulus spending.
Guess the stimulus worked. At least it's worked on Wall Street. The taxpayer bailouts of the country's biggest banks have actually made a nice profit for the government, or so I've heard.
They've made even nicer profits for American corporations, which have posted impressive earnings figures over the past 12 months and are now sitting on piles of cash -- the biggest piles as a percentage of total assets since 1959.
So why don't I feel like popping the cork on a bottle of champagne?
Perhaps it's because unemployment remains stubbornly high - the official figures still hover north of 9.5%. In my field - media and communications - there are still lots of people like me shopping their resumes around while turning to freelancing to pay the bills.
One small incident that brought this home dramatically recently: I serve on the board of a performing-arts organization in Philadelphia that is looking to hire a paid staffer to handle a growing amount of administrative work. Our help-wanted ad for a part-time administrative assistant drew 150 resumes.
And that's for one part-time position.
So while the bankers, the stock and bond traders, the titans of finance, and the folks in the corporate executive suites are riding high again, much of the rest of the economy - or at least the part of it that actually puts people to work - remains stuck in neutral. But perhaps I shouldn't begrudge the brokers, fund managers, and all the rest their good fortune. I guess they've earned it, with a little help from all the rest of us.
Besides, it's not like I'm getting nothing out of the stock market rebound: My 403(b) is doing fine again. (In case you aren't familiar with that number, a 403(b) is the nonprofit equivalent of a 401(k).) Maybe with a few more paying clients, I can start putting money into my retirement fund again. I really should - look how well stocks are doing!
By Sandy Smith
Sandy Smith has been blogging for FinancialJobBank.com since 2010. In addition to launching award-winning newspapers and newsletters at the University of Pennsylvania and Widener University, Sandy is a veteran writer whose articles and essays have appeared in several local and regional media outlets as well as regional and international Web sites. He is also an active participant on several discussion boards, including PhiladelphiaSpeaks.com, where he posts as “MarketStEl.” He has been supporting himself through a combination of freelance and part-time work and unemployment compensation since early 2009 and is himself an active job-seeker. Read more of his posts on FinancialJobBankBlog.com and go to Nexxt for more job opportunities.
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