This week I opened my portfolio it is not a lot, but it is what we are using to send kids to college, finance our retirement, and be savers not consumers. Seeing in the last five days that some of the low risk items in our portfolio get creamed caused some concern. Losing 20% of your money causes some concern. My experience is not greater or lesser than anybody's, but is just a repeated experience as I called my broker and he ran 'bullet points.' I had to tell him, "I don't care, here is what I want to know..."
Wall street hits main street. It hits school funds, retirement funds, and just the hopes and dreams funds. With some folks nearing retirement see that go away...now look at having to work a little longer if it does not come back.
I am pretty laissez-faire in my disposition, free market let it burn. However, free markets only really work when there is a level of transparency. I don't think we have that. Jim Rogers has stated that the American companies' balance sheets cannot be t rusted. It seems that he was right. After Enron we learned little. We lost an accounting firm and an energy company. This time, we will lose our status as the financial capital of the world. It will shift to England, China or Japan. We lose it by being greedy.
I am not sure that Obama or McCain have the wherewithal to make the right decisions in this arena. I don't know who does. I don't know if anyone has the chutzpah to do the right thing. To be dispassionate and lack self interest to fix it.m
I am glad that Social Security is still done by the government, because we would be forced to bailout individuals who supported the hyperactive stock market. All of the stocks would be even more inflated because more capital would have went to the strong stocks and those stocks would burst. The holders would be broke but the brokers would have a fistful of dollars from fees.
This is a difficult time and it is a little disconcerting...48 days away from a change in government and I feel certain that neither one is up to the task. The playing field changed on Monday and neither campaign was ready to do anything except exploit the issue to win the White House while main street suffers.
I know a little cynical, but this one is in my gut.
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2 comments:
The whole bailout is just a part of the Republican "trickle down economy". Main street people are too stupid, failing to realize that wealth is never trickled down because "the profit is from PRIVATE corporation". Duh, do you people understand what PRIVATE mean? You need lot and lot of money/stock shares to be invited into the private club. The "TRICKLE DOWN" part only applies whenever the corporation takes the hits. That is when pain needs to trickle down, and the money needs to trickle up. Everything is done per free market competition standard :)
I will have to say that I am wealthier than when I was kid. I think my parents are more wealthy than they were then. So, the trickle down theory...I am not willing to fully throw out.
But, I am not sure that anybody has the courage to let the whole thing fall apart. When that happens, the rich really get richer. See George Soros...he shorted British Sterling is now extremely wealthy. So, it is this delicate balance and I am not high enough above the fray to get a grasp.
Wish I would have taken an economics class in college.
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