Washington
THE Dow Jones Industrial Average - the granddaddy of indexes - is famously flirting with a milestone. The Dow closed on Friday at 19,963.80, just shy of the irresistible 20,000.
The Dow will cross over eventually, no doubt to great fanfare. But it's not clear whether that milestone will be cause for celebration or concern. A look at previous milestones for the Dow is instructive.
The Dow closed at a humble 40.94 on its first day, May 26, 1896. It took the Dow nearly 10 years to reach its first milestone of 100 on Jan 12, 1906.
It's not easy to track down news headlines from more than a century ago, but I imagine that Dow 100 was greeted with enthusiasm. The companies that made up the Dow...