JFK,Jr. and Stock Market Psychology

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The stock market is all about psychology, the psychology of a nation. Negative outlook makes mountains out of molehills. A positive outlook (or "irrational exuberance") does the opposite. We are being treated to 3 or 4 days of "national well-publicized grieving." I suggest that one not underestimate the significance of this event down the road on the psyche of this country. JFK, Jr. was young, energetic, sexy, and rich, like we all prefer to see ourselves and this nation. His death was the result of a sudden crash. The body can't even be found. PEOPLE ARE VERY BOTHERED BY THIS EVENT, REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL PERSUASION. The question arises as to what this does to the psychological fault tolerance of this country? How do we now see our ability to overcome at the first news of a troublesome international event?

For those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, consider that, as with the birth of this nation, he took off in the daylight and headed for a wedding feast. The light by which he took his bearings gradually receded, he was deceived, and he piloted his plane into the abyss. His death came suddenly, while still young. As I said, only for those with ears to hear and eyes to see. Please, no smart-alecks or trolls. Thanks

-- James (b@b.com), July 18, 1999

Answers

I don't expect anything negative from the stock market because of JFK, Jr's death. There's nothing else earth shattering going on in the news right now so his sudden death would obviously create a mass media frenzy. He was not a powerful politician and for much of his life, Jackie hid him and Caroline from the public's eye. I expect his magazine "George," to fold and life for the Kennedy's to go on, business as usual. Even Princess Diana's death didn't stop the stock market from rising above the 10,000 level. Several months back, many on this forum were predicting where the stock market would be, of course we were all wrong. Many stated that they cashed in their IRA's and 401k plans, I'm wondering how they feel about it now. Also, many purchased gold and I am sure they are feeling the financial loss. Time will tell, but one thing is for sure, what goes up must come down.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), July 18, 1999.

Hopes fade for missing Kennedy plane

Hopes Fade For Missing Kennedy Plane

Sunday, 18 July 1999 2:08 (GMT)

(NOTE: federal investigators dispatched) (UPI Focus)

AQUINNAH, Mass., July 17 (UPI) - After a daylong unsuccessful search for a missing single-engine plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr., the National Transportation Safety Board is launching an investigation into the aircraft's disappearance.

An official statement tonight says an NTSB team has been dispatched to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts as the Coast Guard continues to coordinate "aggressive search-and-rescue activities."

As daylight faded, Air Force helicopters returned to Otis Air Force Base, to resume the search Sunday morning.

Hopes faded today as bits of debris from the Piper Saratoga were recovered and a piece of luggage was positively identified as belonging to Lauren Bessette, Kennedy's sister-in-law. Kennedy's wife, 33-year-old Carolyn Bessette, was also traveling with him.

The luggage, along with what appeared to be an airplane tire, washed up on Philbin Beach on Martha's Vineyard, and Lauren Bessette's name was on the tag of a black suitcase, said First District Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Gary Jones.

Jones said other debris - a head rest and carpeting that appeared to be from the plane - were found this afternoon floating in the water about 100 yards from nearby Gay Head Beach.

Kennedy and the Bessette sisters were traveling from Caldwell, New Jersey, to Hyannis Port for the wedding of Mark Bailey and Rory Kennedy, the last unmarried daughter of Ethel Kennedy and the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The event was postponed, and what should have been a joyous gathering of the clan turned into a grim vigil as members of the Kennedy family waited anxiously at their storied oceanfront compound for word on the fate of the three.

An outdoor family mass was held, presided over by three Roman Catholic priests, as Mrs. Kennedy, other family members and around 275 guests gathered to pray.

Among those present were Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy, Rory's older brother and JFK Jr.'s cousin, and U.S. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, who is married to Kerry Kennedy.

John Kennedy's older sister, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, was away on a rafting trip and had not planned to attend the wedding.

Sen. Kennedy's son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., was also away in California and immediately flew back to Boston, according to media reports.

Family spokesman Brian O'Connor said the family was initially hopeful that the three would be found alive.

But he said the mood at the compound turned somber when debris, apparently from the plane, began washing up on the western end of Martha's Vineyard.

There was no immediate comment from any of the family members.

Before the effort was scaled back at sunset, Rear Adm. Richard M. Larrabee told journalists the Coast Guard was still in a search-and- rescue mode. But the dispatch of federal investigators suggests authorities are now presuming the plane has crashed.

Coast Guard cutters equipped with high-powered lights will continue to search the sea south of Martha's Vineyard throughout the night.

Earlier in the day, the Civil Air Patrol withdrew from the search 15 aircraft that were combing a 15-by-15-mile grid from Long Island to Martha's Vineyard after debris and luggage washed ashore on Philbin Beach.

Jones said the Coast Guard was notified about the missing plane at around 3 a.m. EDT, and the search started immediately.

About 15 Coast Guard and Air Force aircraft and some 150 personnel joined in the search.

Kennedy, a licensed private pilot, was expected to arrive at Martha's Vineyard Airport in Massachusetts in his Piper Saratoga II TC sometime before 10 p.m. Friday.

At 9:39 p.m. Friday, Kennedy radioed the airport and said he was 13 miles from the airport and 10 miles from the coast, according to WCVB-TV news in Boston. He reportedly said he was making his final approach.

Moments later, radar operated by the Federal Aviation Administration showed the plane went into a dive and dropped 1,200 feet in just 12 seconds, according to ABC News.

In his final approach message, WCVB-TV said Kennedy told controllers at the airport that he planned to drop off his wife's sister and then take off again between 11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. for Hyannis Airport.

Kennedy's family then called Hyannis Airport - around 2:15 a.m., reports say - when he failed to arrive. The airport then checked with the Martha's Vineyard airport, and the search began.

The plane took off from Essex County Airport in Caldwell, N.J., at 8:38 p.m. Friday and lost contact with the FAA on its final approach to Martha's Vineyard, Mass., said Coast Guard spokesman Steve Carleton.

An emergency beacon thought to belong to the plane was activated and heard by the Coast Guard in Long Island, N.Y., at 3:40 a.m. But as the search went on, authorities seemed to discount the relevance of the beacon signal.

Kurt Hartman, spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard's district headquarters in New Haven, Conn., said this morning, "We received a call from our district office in Boston directing us to conduct a shoreline search off Horton Point, in Long Island Sound, for an emergency locating transmitting beacon."

But by 10:30 a.m., the Coast Guard was no longer receiving a signal from the emergency beacon that was believed to be on Kennedy's small plane.

Petty Officer Virginia Adams in Boston confirmed to United Press International that the Coast Guard lost the signal Saturday morning. Adams also confirmed that Kennedy was piloting the plane, and that his wife and sister-in-law were aboard.

Jamie Gaspar, spokesman for Martha's Vineyard Airport, told UPI that "someone was at the airport to pick up the passengers on the plane, but it never arrived."

A reporter for the Vineyard Gazette newspaper told WCVB-TV in Boston that he was out walking Friday night about the time of the crash and saw "big white flash in the sky" off Philbin Beach.

Kennedy did not file a flight plan, leading some to first suspect he altered his route. But by 9 a.m., his arrival at Martha's Vineyard was more than 12 hours late, and the Kennedy family postponed the wedding he was traveling to attend.

The Air Force and Air National Guard mounted a massive air search using helicopters, Falcon jets and a TC-130 aircraft over a 1,000- square-mile search area that eventually concentrated on Martha's Vineyard.

The ongoing Coast Guard search involves a 47-foot utility boat, two 41-foot utility boats and an 87-foot patrol boat, as well as two Coast Guard helicopters.

Expected to join the search late tonight was a special ship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration equipped with sonar to conduct underwater searches.

A special infrared-equipped helicopter was also set to join the nighttime search. Its temperature-sensitive equipment is capable of detecting a person in the water.

Kennedy Jr. - the only son of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and the nephew of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. - has worked as an assistant district attorney and is currently the editor of the political magazine George. Kennedy, 38, married Carolyn Bessette during a secretive ceremony in 1996.

WCVB-TV says Kennedy got his pilot's license last year after undergoing training at Flight Safety International, a respected pilots' school in Florida. He was licensed to fly visually, but not by using instruments alone. Visibility at the time was reported to be 8 miles, clear enough to fly without instruments.

The Piper Aircraft Co. says the six-passenger plane Kennedy was flying was built in 1995. WCVB-TV says Kennedy bought it in April of this year.

White House Chief of Staff John Podesta telephoned President Clinton this morning at Camp David with news of the missing plane. Clinton and Kennedy have met often.

In a statement issued from Camp David, where he is spending the weekend, Clinton said, "All our prayers and thoughts are with the families of those on board." The president has asked to be kept informed about the search effort.

Kennedy is a native of Washington. He was born on Nov. 25, 1960, just two months before his father was inaugurated as president.
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White flash in sky EXACTLY three years after TWA800 brought down by missile, same region.

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Radar Picks Up Ping

Sunday, 18 July 1999 21:26 (GMT), (UPI Spotlight)

AQUINNAH, Mass., July 18 (UPI) - The commander of the Coast Guard search and rescue operation looking for the plane carrying John F. Kennedy Jr. says (Sunday) searchers picked up "one ping" on radar that could have come from the plane's emergency beacon.

Rear Adm. Richard Larrabee said the sonar ship Rude is now heading to the location 4 1/2 miles southwest of Gay Head. Larrabee also said a decision would be made later this evening on whether to halt the search operation.

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-- Watching the signs (asthey@fly.by), July 18, 1999.


I think the market is largely being driven by pension funds and worker bees ( like me!) to whom John John and his jet set wife are, (were), meaningless. Rumor has it that the buyers of short term debt (credit card debt) are going to stay on the sidelines in Oct's auction out of Y2K concerns.This will put the sqeeze on the credit card companies and merchants won't get paid.Could be the prick which pops the balloon!

-- Ralph Kramden (and@awaywego.com), July 18, 1999.

Ralph Kramden:

Interesting supposition....

-- Charles R. (chuck_roast@trans.net), July 18, 1999.


James: Lesser or Greater? I hear ya, pal. Hadn't thought of the 'wedding feast' angle--it's good. The one thing the denizens of our pretty culture of death don't want to think on is their own demise: "Though they go mad they shall be sane/ Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; Though lovers be lost love shall not/ And death shall have no dominion." (Dylan Thomas)

-- Spidey (in@jam.commie), July 19, 1999.


From "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris":
Fils de... (Sons of...)

Sons of the thief, sons of the saint, Who is the child with no complaint? Sons of the great or sons unknown, All were children like your own. The same sweet smiles, the same sad tears, The cries at night, the nightmare fears, Sons of the great or sons unknown, All were children like your own... So long ago: long, long, ago...

But sons of tycoons or sons of the farms, All of the children ran from your arms. Through fields of gold, through fields of ruin, All of the children vanished too soon, In tow'ring waves, in walls of flesh, Among dying birds trembling with death Sons of tycoons or sons of the farms, All of the children ran from your arms... So long ago: long, long, ago...

But sons of your sons or sons passing by, Children we lost in lullabies, Sons of true love or sons of regret, All of the sons you cannot forget. Some built the roads, some wrote the poems, Some went to war, some never came home, Sons of your sons or sons passing by, Children we lost in lullabies... So long ago: long, long, ago

But, sons of the thief, sons of the saint, Who is the child with no complaint? Sons of the great or sons unknown, All were children like your own. The same sweet smiles, the same sad tears, The cries at night, the nightmare fears, Sons of the great or sons unknown, All were children like your own... Like your own, like your own...



-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), July 19, 1999.

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