I know I said I wasn’t going to read anymore about the economy but I couldn’t help it, really, I couldn’t. The tag line to Friday’s The Motley Fool was “Is this the Market Bottom?”. I couldn’t resist it … I had to read it. You don’t need to read it, I’ve done the hard work so I’ll just cut to the chase for you … nobody knows. And you’ll only know in hindsight. But as I read the comments, one in particular from WatcherAl jumped out at me. I’ve copied it below for your reading pleasure.
“Forget past history, investment theory, pontificating pundits and all wishful thinking – we have entered a new paradigm that is still emerging. When the consumer credit card crunch hits later this summer, the second great tailspin will resume. The US economic system is far more damaged than we are being told – the same accounting & legal firms that aided & abetted the likes of Enron have been fronting the whole derivatives debacle, so off the books debt is hidden all over the place, and, in the meantime, we have outsourced much of our real economy and replaced it with post-dotcom fluff. The bad news is coming out in dribs & drabs with enough time in between to manage FUD and reset the markets lower & lower without loosing utter panic. The road to recovery will be paved with experimental maneuvers: Federal stimulus spending, writing down trillions of debt, defending a wobbly US dollar currency, getting international cooperation on stricter banking rules & transparency, and moving from a debt-driven consumption propelled economy to a long-term sustainable one. Meanwhile, emerging export economies will have to learn to consume & spend, while China will have to learn to be a responsible global economic power – a tall order for a Communist controlled society that is tempted to do some power grabbing while Uncle Sam is in the ICU. So, do yourself a favor: invest in creating a more sustainable lifestyle for yourself that won’t leave you overly dependent upon a vast chain of questionable players who may decide to yank your leash from time to time just to show you who is really in control. And if you really do want a better world for your grandchildren to live in, engage with this current administration and help them to do the right thing. You have an Ivy League A student in the Oval Office now, instead of that grade C sock puppet with the Bin Laden Family & Enron buddies, so he’s probably much smarter than you are – help him to sort through all of the conflicting advice and find us a workable path out of this firestorm and onto safe ground once again. Take a few bucks down to your local soup kitchen or homeless shelter, and invest in your beleaguered fellow citizens. Greed & perpetual self-interest are what piloted us onto the rocks – so isn’t it time to try something else for a change? Get involved… care.”What do you think?
This week, this new week, I’m going to try harder NOT to read this stuff, but today I fell off the wagon.
Hope your week is good too!