I think that everyone in America would start to feel better if the stock market started going up again. (Yes, this is the materialistic side of me talking; I’d also like to see a spiritual enlightenment here, but so would conservative Christians and Islamic jihadists …. one person’s enlightenment is another person’s apostasy, so we will let that go for now). No, not the crazy returns of the 1990s, but maybe 6 to 10 percent per year. I’d feel a little bit better myself given that I have retirement funds invested in stocks (albeit through social responsibility funds). I know that people still feel wealthy here because of the housing price boom, which kicked in after stocks stopped rising in 1999. But that’s probably a bubble waiting to break.

Back to the stock market, I heard a report on NPR the other day saying that on average, the stock market does quite a bit better in years following National League victories in the World Series. Here’s a good link from Shaeffer Investment Research. (Ah, I remember the days when Shaeffer meant beer, not investment advice. They had some great jingles. I can still remember: “Shaeffer is the one beer to have when you’re having more than one . . . . .” A great beer to watch the World Series with, once upon a time.) Well, I’d like to see the White Sox get the flag this year, but I hope that won’t bring on a market crash.

It probably won’t. This is probably a spurious correlation, something that doesn’t mean anything. The largest gains since 1951 (over 25%) are split evenly, 5 each. Also, the largest of all gains (45% in 1954) came after an American League victory. And the best gain since 1958 came in the year after there was no World Series (34% in 1995). So enjoy the games, and root for whoever you want, no matter where your money is (or isn’t). But as to why the market isn’t going anywhere when America is supposedly in the middle of an economic boom, well . . . . that is something to think about. While watching the games, will Mr. Bush wonder why his Social Security privitization plan isn’t exactly setting America on fire? He will obviously be rooting for the Astros, for more reasons than one. (Darn, I tried to relate that line back to the old Shaeffer jingle …. just couldn’t get it to work).