Don't ever take stock advice from an economist

Some of you may have noticed that the stock market has dropped almost 10% since the first of November. This shouldn't affect most people's day to day lives (except for stock brokers) at the moment, but falling stock prices can signal future downswings in the economy. Granted, this drop is nowhere near the 89% decline before the Great Depression, and there are now many systems in place to prevent a catastrophe of that size. A more similar event to what is happening now was the stock market crash of 1987, where the Dow Jones Index lost about 30% of its value in less than a week. Two factors that have been blamed for this collapse were a declining value of the US dollar, and a large trade deficit - both sound very familiar. Somehow, the US economy survived that crash without too many problems, and unemployment actually went down over the next few years, so maybe that's what'll happen now. Or maybe the housing slowdown, high price of oil, increasing inflation and huge consumer debt will bring about a long term economic slowdown. Either way, the goal of this economic summary is not to forecast impending doom and gloom, but rather to present a dark background against which to juxtapose what is sure to be a shining star of stocks in the future. I've got a hot (and when I say hot, I mean sizzling) stock tip for you: TASR, the company that makes the taser.
Tasers have been all over the news lately, and some may say they've received mostly negative attention. But those in the business world know that there's no such thing as bad publicity. Every time someone mentions a taser in the news, that's another life that's been saved by this device, and hundreds more potential customers. For example, there was a news story about a man who fell into a diabetic coma on a bus and was tasered (twice) by police. For those who think that tasering someone who is unconcsious is unconscionable, consider the alternative: if the police didn't have a taser, they would have been forced to kill this man, who, in his immobile state, presented a clear and present danger to all those around him. In fact, I believe that when this man came to, he happily shook the taser-holding hand of the officer who saved his life. That story came from England, but there are lives being saved all over the world by tasers. For example, in the US there was a student at the University of Florita who had the temerity to ask John Kerry a question at a political rally (TAZRD!), and a student who refused to leave the library at UCLA (BZZZT!). Those two young men now owe their lives to this amazing device. In Canada, there is also the case of a man who arrived at an airport and did not speak English. After authorities tried to talk to this man for a few minutes, they apparently tased him multiple times, and he died shortly afterwards. How many lives were saved by the taser in this case? Millions. We all know that terrorists travel by plane, and this man was at an airport and did not speak English; therefore, he was a very likely probable potential danger. He could have had a bomb, or a water bottle, or some other dangerous device not permitted on planes. Just because he had already passed through security checkpoints does not mean he was not a threat.
What can we expect from tasers in the future? For the holidays, there will be taser-cooked turkey recipes - just 15 minutes on stun, and you'll have the juiciest Thanksgiving turkey you've ever tasted. Also, taser alarm clocks, for those days when you absolutely have to get out of bed on time. Soon the kids will be playing taser tag, and we'll have taser doormats for unwanted visitors. I see nothing but growth and electric potential for this company. Advice: BUY