Wall Street Redux: July 20, 2007

The following is a reprint of a short essay I wrote about the stock market at the time it hit one of its all time highs. The level it hit which stimulated this article may still be the all time record high, I am not sure. It had gone over 14,000 for the first time in the history of the stock exchange. Everyone was quite excited. I was not of the same mind set. That may be attributed to not owning much stock, if any. It could also be attributed to personal lack of skill and an overt sense of the evil of serving two masters. I have come to enjoy blogging. Blogging makes it so easy for one to look back and "see" what one was thinking. Perhaps you guys will find this interesting. The bubble popped, but it took a year for that to happen big time. When it did happen it was more explosive than anyone could have imagined.



The rich remain rich and prosper more. The poor remain poor, not poorer, just flat poor. The stocks are hot potatoes. They get warm, warmer, exciting, then too hot. As they begin to glow white from their heat (perhaps we are almost there) those who are best at the game drop them on those less expert. The great players remain__rich, and the others, well, they oft times get burned. Wages go down. Hopes for an early retirement gone, back most of us go to reality...creating our own livings with our hands, minds, and mostly time. Seems the money ends up in the same pockets and never really ends up changing the lives of those who are of lesser means. Yachts get bigger, hotels rise higher, Airbus builds ever bigger planes, Boeing ever faster, more efficient ones. More ways of taking others money are invented either by Madison or Pennsylvania Avenues. The control stays in the circle...the circle of the rich and the educated. I can not get too excited about the market...we celebrate ourselves, we don't help others. We celebrate the bigger house, the blacker BMW, the awesome HD wide screen in our entertainment rooms. But, real never seems to change much. When the bubble (illusion) bursts we cry for ourselves. I don't play, perhaps I am a fool, perhaps I am not smart enough, perhaps I know my limits, perhaps I've watched the system enough to know better. I have to keep reminding myself to not store up my treasures where moth and rust destroy. There are few things more rusty and moth eaten, less trust worthy, than our stock markets. Still, I guess I'll vote Republican again. I always have...somethings never change (maybe). But, I keep thinking...one can't eat carbon fibre or drink ethanol for breakfast. And, silicone chips go lousy with Easy Cheese.