On average, a bear market will last half as long as a bull market but I believe we can all agree that what we are currently experiencing would not qualify as average. Some individuals are calling it a black swan event, referring to the recently published book by the same title; others are calling it an outlier. The extremists are comparing it to The Great Depression.

Let's try to keep things in perspective. During the market correction of 1929 to 1932, we witnessed a correction that reduced the value of the DOW by roughly 89%. (By the way, 1933 witnessed the single largest percentage gain for the DOW, up roughly 67%.)[1]  Unemployment reached 25%.[2]  It is my opinion that this recession is remarkably similar to what, as a nation, we witnessed in 1973 and 1974. During that period the S&P 500 fell 48%[3]; unemployment reached 7.2%[4] and the PE ratio on stocks dropped to about 8.[5]  For those of us that were not yet members of the working class during this time, we tend to only remember the long gas lines, those episodes of tedium that we found to be simply a nuisance. For us, those 50 and older have more distinct memories of lost jobs and periods of uncertainty: war, protests, and a political system in turmoil that culminated with the resignation of both Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Richard Nixon. A cloud hung over the United States like Pigpen, the character John Schultz immortalized in his comic strip Peanuts.

The recessions we have lived through since then have been mild in comparison. The last one, so brief, the National Bureau of Economic Research couldn't identify its official start date until it had already concluded. We grew complacent, knowing that the individuals that were steering this great ship could do so with envious precision.

We were wrong. We were lulled into a sense of euphoric bliss.