Reply With Quote
the stock market, as the American economy is constructed, is a ponzi scheme.
Its akin to bidding up the price of baseball cards with debt. brilliant.
I want somebody's head on a stick.
When we were less "civilized", the heads of criminals or traitors were often put on pikes on the castle walls to deter others from doing the same. Hundreds/thousands of years later, this seemingly effective practice has been deemed to be barbaric.
So it is.
That doesn't mean that I don't want the risk managers, underwriters, and CEOs whose stupidity introduced us to the words " a few trillion" when it comes to talking about the full scale of the financial losses and government bailouts to take some of the fall for this.
BUT
Often I hear a lot of people complaining about their 401k's and investments having lost value.
Many on the left like to blame the CEOs of the company, and say that we should wipe out the greedy shareholders who let the CEOs get away with taking insane risks.
Who are those shareholders?
We are.
We have, for too long, abdicated our oversight of the companies we invest in to the rubber stamp corporate boards whose only function is to back the management of the company no matter what.
If you can't name at least 2 members of the Board of Directors in the largest company of your stock portfolio, you can't about losing money. Your disinterest in managing your investments is as much to blame for this crisis as those CEOs.
If you shoved money into a mutual fund, and then let that mutual fund simply invest cash on autopilot without looking out for your interests on the Board of Directors of the companies in that mutual fund, you are just as much to blame for this mess as anybody else.
We are a nation of shareholders. The vast majority of all stocks in this country are ultimately held by none other than the vast majority of us, through our various retirement fund vehicles.
It is up to the government to do something about it now, as we taxpayers now become the activist shareholders that we as shareholders SHOULD have been to begin with.
Yes, I truly think that somebody's head should be on a stick for this. If you rob so many people of their money and savings, that is at least as bad as sticking a gun to the temple of a convenience store clerk and pulling the trigger for $50. It won't literally happen, but I want to know why so many of the executives of the major financial ins utions still have their jobs.
I realize that many of you don't want to take your share of responsibility for this, but ultimately, your stock losses are just as much your fault as the executives.
You can either keep ing about losing money in bubbles like this, or start giving your money to people who actually give a about the companies they invest in.
If, in your anger, you haven't asked your mutual fund manager why or if they bought into the plans of so many financial ins utions' managment, you need to start asking, through your chosen financial representatives, those tough questions.
If you don't hold the Boards of Directors responsible and remove them for the actions of the management they themselves selected, then what motivation is there for future managers or Boards of Directors to worry about the silly shareholders' long term interests.
We have let our myopia of next quarter's profits cause us to stumble into a pit that we will be spending years, if not decades, climing out of.
Shareholders, unite before it is too late!
--Randomguy (yes, I did write it)
Last edited by RandomGuy; 03-31-2009 at 07:13 AM.
the stock market, as the American economy is constructed, is a ponzi scheme.
Its akin to bidding up the price of baseball cards with debt. brilliant.
Government programs are ponzi schemes. Nothing new here.
Just stick with mutual funds and decades of compounded interest. What else should people do with money? Let it sit around and watch it inflate into nothing?
This article is like saying, YOU the people need to start actually paying attention to government and vote out the morons in Washington. In reality, we know not enough people do or will. Good message, makes sense, people should,....but they won't so oh well.
Last edited by LockBeard; 03-30-2009 at 02:31 PM.
I didn't own any 401Ks, I don't own a house, I have government health care (go military), and the only debt I currently have is my car debt.
My head is safe!
Edit: In fact, I don't mind this too much at all on a personal level. I'm a salaried employee, and the way that prices are dropping, I might actually be able to afford a house! In fact, I just used savings to buy a 5 day trip to Disneyworld, the first vacation my wife and I have been able to afford. I'm being patriotic!
Are Lockbeard and Angrydude the same person? Or just some weird sort of synchronicity? lol
I've done my part. Counting my house note I still have about 2 1/2 years of salary of debt.
The managers of these funds are elected. It's unlikely that a member is ever going to have direct communication with the fund manager. As a member, all you really have visibility into is what particular companies that fund invests in. You have no real influence on the day-to-day trading that goes on. People that want to micro-manage their investments probably shouldn't be in mutual funds.
Pixelpusher,
Clever perhaps, but beside the point.
Comparing competent corporate governance to counterproductive meddling might be a tell. It gives us a clue what you are thinking, but does not really follow the OP.
I was only addressing this point.
In a mutual fund, you elect the fund manager and hope that he/she has the good sense to invest wisely. That's just how they are set up.
Fair enough. It's a good point. nm.
Do you seriously believe the run-of-the-mill investor has time to do all this?
My advice is pick a Mutual Fund that you trust and hope they have the time to do it.
Otherwise, go with government securities . . .
Do you have a tsp?
whoaaaa.......easy.....
I want somebody's head on a stick too, but the financial mess is not MY fault.
truly, the financial mess is a bit of everyone's fault. but who cares... the market always comes back. It will, and prices haven't been this low in 12 years. it is a buiying opportunity. has it hit rock bottom? probably not, but it will eventually rebound. the market has only ever dropped more than 20% 6x in history since 1929. 2008 being one of them. it has risen up more than 205 over 31x... i'm betting on the positive. most people are pessimists
I just started investing a few months ago, when the market tanked.lol
There is a difference between prudent debt and imprudent debt.
Done correctly, borrowing money WILL maximize returns.
So, if it's your fault, why are you allowing Obama to steal the money from your grandchildren in an attempt to bail you out of this?
Anyway, artificially low interest rates produce bad investments. It's always been that way. It'll happen again in the future.
The shareholders should held the management responsible, obviously. However, the reason why so many of them still have their jobs is quite easy to explain: thanks to the government, that won't allow their companies to fail. And by not allowing that, the government is also giving the shareholders an incentive to not care more in the future: making your appeal moot.
Financial crisis? What financial crisis?
Didn't the US congress aproved a 700.000 mil dolars bail out plan to try to fix this "crisis"?
I have a better idea: distribute those 700.000 mil among the 6.700 mil people that live in this planet and we'd all have around 104 mil each. I think nobody would be on crisis then.
hey DR, what happened with that other thing?
God, the more I look at that above post, the more I think the math is wrong.
It basically boils down to this:
I either resign myself that the lost items are gone for good or charge the house-sitter with robbery.
Ive resigned myself to the lost items being gone for good. I just couldnt have a clean conscience going the "other" ways I was going to.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
