The Big Bad Bear
"Seldom have the unwanted words of a Cassandra been more ignored than Alan Greenspan's speech on "The Challenge of Central Banking in a Democratic Society." In that speech, given on Dec. 5, 1996, he coined the now-famous phrase "irrational exuberance" in reference to "unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade."
It is worth noting that on that day of warning, the Dow opened at 6422.90, 19.38 percent lower than last Friday's catastrophic open of 7967.20. This is a clear indication that the market not only can continue to go down, but probably will."