{"id":296443,"date":"2026-02-17T23:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/296443\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T23:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:52:16","slug":"some-things-that-didnt-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/296443\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Things That Didn’t Happen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Great Financial Crisis decimated investor confidence in the system at large.<\/p>\n

With two recessions and two stock market crashes in the space of 10 years anything seemed possible.<\/p>\n

The aftermath of the crisis created a new regime of pessimism. Everyone wanted their 15 minutes by trying to predict the next crash.<\/p>\n

The Fed is going to cause hyperinflation and a collapse of the dollar! The next crisis will be even bigger! This is the top! No that\u2019s the top!\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not naive to the fact that bad stuff can and will happen. Of course it will. But most of the time, dire forecasts about the future don\u2019t come to fruition.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a walk down financial memory lane and look at some of the worrying predictions of the past 15 years or so that didn\u2019t come to pass.1<\/p>\n

There was no double-dip recession following the 2008 financial crisis.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stock market valuations did not surge back into bubble territory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We weren\u2019t in the early stages of a depression.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Dow didn\u2019t crash to 3,000.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The stock market did fall 19% in 2011. It was a great buying opportunity.<\/p>\n

There was no recession in 2012.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2013 was not a dangerous year for stocks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The stock market didn\u2019t crash.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t get a repeat of 1937.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t a stock market collapse in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t get another 1987 crash in 2017.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The stock market did fall 19% in 2018. It was a great buying opportunity.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t get a crash in 2019 or a flat-lining of the stock market.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The stock market did crash in March 2020 at the outset of the pandemic. It was a great buying opportunity.<\/p>\n

The economy survived the coronavirus far better than expected.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The stock market and the economy didn\u2019t stay down for long and the risk-reward set-up was pretty good.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t get hyperinflation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fed didn\u2019t cause an economic hurricane.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We did have a bear market in 2022. It was a great buying opportunity.<\/p>\n

There was no recession in 2022 despite 9% inflation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t get a recession in 2023 either.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The stock market did not crash 64%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It did fall nearly 20% following Liberation Day and the trade war. It was a great buying opportunity.<\/p>\n

There are going to be even more scary headlines in the years ahead warning about AI.<\/p>\n

Look, I\u2019m not trying to rub it in. Everyone gets things wrong about the markets and the economy. I\u2019m wrong about a lot of stuff too.<\/a><\/p>\n

I just think it\u2019s important to recognize that sensational predictions rarely come true. Spending 95% of your time worrying about things that happen 5% of the time is a great way to constantly scare yourself out of markets that usually go up.<\/p>\n

My stance on investing has always come from a place of reasonable optimism. There is no point in investing for the long haul if you do not think things will be better in the future than they are today. But you also have to recognize that bad things can and will happen along the way.<\/p>\n

There will be nasty stock market crashes, recessions and financial crises in the future. I know these things will happen and I still invest for the long-term.<\/p>\n

The entire reason I started this blog in the first place is that I was sick and tired of all the negativity coming out of 2008. I\u2019ve spent the past 10+ years preaching about the virtues of long-term investing with the understanding that it\u2019s not going to be a smooth ride.<\/p>\n

I love this topic so much that I wrote an entire book about it. It comes out this spring. You can pre-order it now<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m really proud of this one. It\u2019s essentially everything I\u2019ve been working on for the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

Further Reading:
Some Things I\u2019ve Been Wrong About<\/a><\/p>\n

1You can click each headline to read the articles.<\/p>\n

This content, which contains security-related opinions and\/or information, is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon in any manner as professional advice, or an endorsement of any practices, products or services. There can be no guarantees or assurances that the views expressed here will be applicable for any particular facts or circumstances, and should not be relied upon in any manner. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax, and other related matters concerning any investment.<\/p>\n

The commentary in this \u201cpost\u201d (including any related blog, podcasts, videos, and social media) reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints, and analyses of the Ritholtz Wealth Management employees providing such comments, and should not be regarded the views of Ritholtz Wealth Management LLC. or its respective affiliates or as a description of advisory services provided by Ritholtz Wealth Management or performance returns of any Ritholtz Wealth Management Investments client.<\/p>\n

References to any securities or digital assets, or performance data, are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and\/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others.<\/p>\n

The Compound Media, Inc., an affiliate of Ritholtz Wealth Management, receives payment from various entities for advertisements in affiliated podcasts, blogs and emails. Inclusion of such advertisements does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof, or any affiliation therewith, by the Content Creator or by Ritholtz Wealth Management or any of its employees. Investments in securities involve the risk of loss. For additional advertisement disclaimers see here: https:\/\/www.ritholtzwealth.com\/advertising-disclaimers<\/p>\n

Please see disclosures here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Great Financial Crisis decimated investor confidence in the system at large. With two recessions and two stock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-296443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}