The markets are in the middle of a historic decline. Not so much in the magnitude—while we are approaching a bear market, these happen fairly regularly—but in the speed of the drop. We have rarely, if ever, seen this kind of a sudden decline, especially from close to record levels. People are nervous, of course, and understandably so. But that makes it even more important to take a step back and understand how we got here because that will inform where we are going.
