ome of us will remember the date: October 14, 1962.  It’s been 57 years since the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis, an event which put the world on the brink of nuclear war.  It happened in the middle of the Cold War, when school children were routinely taught to hide under their desks in the event of an attack.  At that time, the U.S. discovered that the Soviet Union was deploying medium range ballistic missiles on Cuban soil.  This would become the biggest test of John F. Kennedy’s presidency.  Seeing this as an obvious threat to national security, Kennedy’s advisors prepared several options to consider, including an invasion of Cuba.  The President, however, feared that too aggressive a military response could trigger a military escalation from the Soviets, possibly starting a nuclear war.  Kennedy put the U.S. military on “maximum alert” and weighed all of his options, knowing that delaying his decision meant that more Cuban missiles would become operational.

You may be old enough to remember when television stations signed off the airwaves for the night. Some stations ended the day’s broadcasts by playing the National Anthem. After that, you saw nothing but a test pattern until the morning programming sign-on.

As of November 20th, the U.S. stock market is flat year-to-date, having given up all gains for the year.  The story for foreign stock markets is worse, down double-digits for the year. After one of the calmest years on record in 2017, this year has seen volatility return with a vengeance with two market declines greater than 10% from a previous market high.