On the October 19 edition of CNN Newsroom, business news anchor Ali Velshi reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been setting “record after record after record,” and that by closing at 12,011.73 on October 19, the Dow had reached “a new record. ... The first time ever [closing] over 12,000.” But when adjusted for inflation, the Dow is well below its peak set in January 2000, as Media Matters for America has noted. As The New York Times reported on October 3: “By some measures, the Dow still has some ways to go before it can be said to have reclaimed its previous heights. On an inflation-adjusted basis, the average would have to reach 14,104.97 points for it to match its January 2000 peak.”

From a chart produced by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

From the October 19 edition of CNN Newsroom:

VELSHI: Let's take a quick look at this Dow and see how it's doing. Here's an interesting situation. We are above 12,000. That would make it the first time ever in history that the Dow closes above 12,000. Now, why is this significant? People have been telling me, "This seems to be moving too fast. Is the other shoe going to drop? The Dow has been just record after record after record.

Well, it's record after record after record because we're at the top. Every day that it goes up -- markets, instinct -- they go up over time, so we're going to see records. But remember, the march from 10,000 to 11,000 took 26 days. One gets that that might be a little odd, rushed. The march from 11,000 to 12,000: 7 1/2 years. So everybody thinks this has been a massive rush to 12,000 -- it really hasn't been.

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VELSHI: Twelve thousand and eleven, a new record on the Dow. The first time ever over 12,000.