Icarus flew too close to the sun, his wings melted and he plummeted into the sea. Today, America is reeling in the wake of its own fatal fall. The damage is palpable and personal. Many people feel it directly or know someone who, like Icarus, has crashed and burned. For those of us born after 1960, our only experiences with the stock market have been under the aegis of the great bull that began in 1982.
Older generations are more likely to have greater perspective when it comes to stocks.
There has been very little in the financial culture since 1982 to suggest things might not work out. While older investors have a fully formed set of expectations, investors under the age of forty have almost no idea of financial adversity. This limited palette of experience has spawned a culture of financial Icaruses. Fueled by the party atmosphere of the Reagan years, young investors and investment bankers became accustomed to breathing thin air. They were literally flying as the market defied gravity.