Okay, this time in crayons: if you owned stock when the value was at $20.00, then the market tanks and now it is worth $8.00, when the market goes back to $20.00 do you claim you had a gain of $12.00?
The answer is NO; you broke even and until the stock grows beyond $20.00 you have not gained. Same thing with the market. Until it achieved it's previous high of 14,164.43, nothing was gained. We only got back to where we were.
Fucking retards. I get it though, when you have a low IQ, trying to comprehend the OBVIOUS is difficult.
Correct. But you stupidly tried to say Obama is responsible for that $12 loss when it occurred under Bush. The Dow still increased 149% under Obama--nobody claimed your investments grew 149%. Your retirement account may only be where it was before the recession, but is it much better off than when it lost over 40%.