So the Dow Jones industrial average came within 3.19 points of 5000 last week. Close enough for government work, if the government hadn't stopped working because of the Great Budget Crisis. By the time you read this, the market may well have broken the 5000 barrier. Whoopee! Break out the champagne! But what does a 5000 Dow actually mean? In a word, nothingmuch. All it means is that the Dow would be 1,000 points higher than it was on Feb. 23 of this year, when it broke 4000. The 5000 Dow is a media event, not a market event. We media types love round numbers with lots of zeros, so we give them big play. But does a 5000 Dow mean that 6000 is just around the corner? Or that stock prices are too high? Or neither? You can't possibly know. Obsessing over the Dow is like using a thermometer to decide whether it's too hot outside. Is 101 degrees really all that much hotter than 99?
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