A Year of Living Dangerously

by: Doug Griffith

This was the headline of the year-end-review on the Wall Street Journal dated January 2, 2001.

The NASDAQ Composite Index had its worst year since it was created in 1971 dropping almost 40%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 6.2% breaking a 9 year winning streak. The Standard & Poor's 500-Stock Index lost 10.1%, its worst year since 1977. If that weren't enough we saw medical inflation surging while the stock market was plunging. We saw medical plan rate increases ranging from 4% to 45%.

We went from the "Y2K" Crisis to the Stock Market Crisis to the Political Crisis. We couldn't figure out what to do with Elian Gonzales any more than we could figure out what direction stocks were going or who should be the President.

While company values were plunging, low unemployment was applying pressure for higher wages and better benefits; medical inflation was skyrocketing and we are being promised that natural gas prices may increase by as much as 40% (this at a time when we are experiencing record cold temperatures). Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

• So what's the good news?

While 2000 was a test of our faith, the good news is . we survived! Faith is acting upon our beliefs without seeing results. Just as beaten down value investors reaped their rewards for sticking to their plan, even though they hadn't seen good results for several years, so will businesses that base their decisions on solid time tested principles.

At BusinessPlans, Incorporated we strive to provide value and the highest level of quality based on solid time tested principles. We believe value will survive the hard times and thrive during the good times.