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Show 'AY OCTOBER 26, 1987 Wallowing in the Wall Street hole Just when you think you've seen everything, the Blue Jays collapse last month, leading the AL East by three and a half games with seven left to play and then losing seven games in a row. If that isn't enough, now we have to endure the collapse of Wall Street. Last week, the tangled webs of the creatures of Wall Street were thrown at our feet. Not that the hysteria of Wall Street is in anyway significant when considering the historic demise of the 'Jays, and it is certainly maddening when the all important fifth game is delayed by the ramblings of President Reagan in his first press conference since June. Perhaps the most appropriate question that could be asked in the backdrop of this past week's event is so what? Absent any real economic importance, the convulsions of Wall Street seem appropriately isolated to those moguls of stocks, bonds and money who lost out. So what? Inevitability is the way in which the crash came. The market, inflated for months, was due for a correction. After the dust clears, we will find stock prices to be at the more realistic 1986 levels. Most perplexing of all is attempting to analyze what precipitated the crash. In terms of the economy, the crash comes at a time of strong economic signs as well as sustained economic growth. Unemployment remains at six percent, inflation has remained stable, our economy is in the midst of the greatest peacetime expansion in history, and the Federal Reserve has lower interest rates to allow more fluidity in the economy. Once again, as thought is given to Monday's mess, inevitably one looks at the hysteria surrounding the event and asks, ''So what?" An inescapable conclusion that can be certainly drawn from last week's palpitations is that the stock exchange has become a halfway house for paranoid schizophrenics. The confused finger pointing that followed Monday's crash concluded that the villain behind the historic collapse was the federal deficit. The federal deficit? Is this not the same federal deficit we have had since the days of LBJ? The only deficit that existed on Wall Street this week was a deficit of economic responsibility and a surplus of greed and avarice. The only occurrence more appalling than the ruination of this past Monday was how few people had the state of mind to pose the question So what?. Only ABC maintained the grip of reality not to fall into the pathology of crisis that NBC and CBS found themselves afflicted by. If Freud were alive, he'd view the happenings of tine week as a collective case of hysterical paralysis. Certainly, we will eventually find ourselves in recession due to the inevitable nature of the business cycle. However, the panic created on Wall Street and the hysterical news coverage given to it by the national networks does nothing but create a wave of economic handwringing that can lead to a disastrous depression mentality. In the midst of stock exchange's crisis comes the politically impotent Reagan to attempt to quell economic fears and stave off the nation falling into the hysteria of Wall Street. However, in a time that demanded decisive leadership from the White House, Reagan could do little more than juggle reporters' questions in a display that was more resemblent of an illusionist's act. As my journalistic guru, George Will, pointed out, "There is little to suggest that the man who swore to die before raising taxes is willing to take a trip to the hereafter." Thus in the absence of any clear leadership from the White House, the economic neurosis created by Wall Street continues. So what? A wonderful axiom. It can serve to cast a ray of reality into a very unreal state of affairs. It serves here to deflate the of Wall Street. There is little sympathy for those who will now pick themselves out of the carnage of the stock exchange. For the investment firms of Wall Street, they have fallen into the hysterical hole of their own creation and now cannot even sing Winnie-th- e Pooh so that rescuers can dig them out. PR. fl.F. RICH. OPTOMETRIST 60 NORTH MAIN 2B 586-888- imm TWO PIZZAS, ONE FANTASTIC PRICE! CHOOSE YOUR FAVORITE TOPPINGS SUPER SUPREME SUPREME Pan or Thin Our ultimate nine topping' delight.. .Italian sausage, ham, A pepperoni, pork topping, onion, beef topping, mushroom, green pepper and black olive. Pan or Thin great six topping combination.. .beef topping, pepperoni, pork topping, mushroom, onion and green peplier. 1 discount ON ALL SERVICES AND MATERIALS TO STUDENTS, FACULTY AND STAFF, YEAR ROUND. FRIENDLY, CARING, EXPERIENCED, WITH COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY Guarantee Specialty Risk Free Contacts, Money-Bac- k Pepperoni Italian Sausage Mushroom Bacon Bits Tomatoes Extra Cheese Beef Topping Ham Green Pepper Anchow Pork Topping Onion Black Olive .Jalapeno (Hot) Pepper Pineapple PAGE 5 |