Page 45 - Billy Graham in Heaven

38 Billy Graham's Glorious Jam
finally realized that George Bush Jr.’s post-9/11 plea “to go shopping,” was actually a life-or-death necessity for a healthy economy. The stock market topped 30,000 on July 4th, 2020.
Then the Dow began to inch down. Purchasing decreased at the same steady rate. It was no stampede of bears, but by 2026 Americans were barely buying. And there was still plenty of room on credit cards, and national savings were at a healthy level! Somehow the demand half of the supply-and-demand equation was crumbling.
It’s true that corporate America had foisted some real consumer lemons on America. The 22nd edition smart phones had overflowed into app overload that crashed processors by the millions. An electric-hydrogen hybrid car, the Hydrocket, had promised up to 500 mpg and zero-to-seventy acceleration in five seconds. But it fatally shocked several buyers when it was found that the hydrogen tended to combine with oxygen, thus submerging the electric battery in super-conducting water.
Of course, Americans had been rocked by icky Edsels and rotten Apples before. No, this consumer malaise seemed more fundamental. Economists started prognosticating that Americans had finally possessed enough stuff. They just didn’t want any more. And the Madison Avenue’s “next big thing” that usually drove demand was no longer persuasive.
Whatever the cause, what could not be denied was that the stock market steadily decreased and then plunged, descending from its approximately 32,000 high to 15,000 in 2025. By 2026 it was dipping below 10,000. As usual, the lower class suffered terribly, and the middle class had