The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell another 449 points today, continuing its downward slide in the wake of the demise of the Lehman Brothers firm, Merrill Lynch's being bought by Bank of America and the AIG bail out by the government. Frankly, that all of this is causing such a massive Wall Street meltdown is truly frightening. I don't really understand what's happened to cause all this save the fact that it had something to do with extremely risky investing in all kinds of shaky schemes where it all came crashing down like a house of cards. I read that the Dow Jones has shed some 800 points this week alone between today's crash and Monday's 500+ point freefall. It makes me wonder whether it'd even be worth it for me to invest in any kind of retirement account like a 401(K) or an annuity or something of the kind, seeing as how Wall Street is melting like Arctic sea ice. I don't feel at all secure in the idea of doing any kind of investing right now. I don't care how safe it may be on the surface. Ultimately, any and all investments are tied to these big investment and brokerage firms that are going belly up like beached whales, and there will doubtless be ripples felt throughout the entire financial sector. It almost makes me glad that I don't have one penny in any kind of investment portfolio. I've seen far too many of my friends have their portfolios wiped out by just such events as have been happening of late, and I refuse to lose that much money in what is basically legalized gambling on a massive scale. I all too well remember the lessons that my college history professor taught us about what led up to the Great Depression and frankly, I remember the lessons he taught way too well, and even 30 years later, they've stuck in my brain. I've seen too many parallels to then and now - massive overspeculation, easy credit and runaway greed led to an eventual crash that wiped out untold amounts of people's savings. Of course, we do now have the FDIC (which I am sure some of the conservatives, bent on a complete elimination of any of FDR's social programs, would just love to get rid of!), but still, something about all of this stuff makes me very nervous that even those of us with our money in regular banks are going to somehow feel the effects of all of this in some way or other. Our current administration has been hell bent on complete deregulation of just about everything and an insane devotion to free market philosophy. Let the markets take care of themselves, they say, and competition will drive down prices, but in point of fact, when freed from government oversight, they run amok and do stupid things that end up wiping them out and costing thousands of good paying jobs. Somewhere, somehow, something's gotta give. And soon. The sooner, the better. Because if this financial crisis continues unabated, I suspect that we're in for a long, ugly period of deep recession from which it will take many long years to emerge. If that happens here, it will be felt worldwide, meaning the entire world is going to feel the pinch, since economics is now all globalized. That can't be good for countries struggling toward peace and stability. If anything, it will destabilize them even more. And all that's going to mean is more war, more bloodshed, more lives lost in futility. Competition for scarcer and scarcer resources is the number one cause of modern warfare, and if no one's got any money, the gulf between haves and have-nots will widen even more than it is today. I just hope that there is someone, somewhere, with some wisdom who can staunch the financial bleeding before it's too late to do anything about it.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The downward spiral continues...
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell another 449 points today, continuing its downward slide in the wake of the demise of the Lehman Brothers firm, Merrill Lynch's being bought by Bank of America and the AIG bail out by the government. Frankly, that all of this is causing such a massive Wall Street meltdown is truly frightening. I don't really understand what's happened to cause all this save the fact that it had something to do with extremely risky investing in all kinds of shaky schemes where it all came crashing down like a house of cards. I read that the Dow Jones has shed some 800 points this week alone between today's crash and Monday's 500+ point freefall. It makes me wonder whether it'd even be worth it for me to invest in any kind of retirement account like a 401(K) or an annuity or something of the kind, seeing as how Wall Street is melting like Arctic sea ice. I don't feel at all secure in the idea of doing any kind of investing right now. I don't care how safe it may be on the surface. Ultimately, any and all investments are tied to these big investment and brokerage firms that are going belly up like beached whales, and there will doubtless be ripples felt throughout the entire financial sector. It almost makes me glad that I don't have one penny in any kind of investment portfolio. I've seen far too many of my friends have their portfolios wiped out by just such events as have been happening of late, and I refuse to lose that much money in what is basically legalized gambling on a massive scale. I all too well remember the lessons that my college history professor taught us about what led up to the Great Depression and frankly, I remember the lessons he taught way too well, and even 30 years later, they've stuck in my brain. I've seen too many parallels to then and now - massive overspeculation, easy credit and runaway greed led to an eventual crash that wiped out untold amounts of people's savings. Of course, we do now have the FDIC (which I am sure some of the conservatives, bent on a complete elimination of any of FDR's social programs, would just love to get rid of!), but still, something about all of this stuff makes me very nervous that even those of us with our money in regular banks are going to somehow feel the effects of all of this in some way or other. Our current administration has been hell bent on complete deregulation of just about everything and an insane devotion to free market philosophy. Let the markets take care of themselves, they say, and competition will drive down prices, but in point of fact, when freed from government oversight, they run amok and do stupid things that end up wiping them out and costing thousands of good paying jobs. Somewhere, somehow, something's gotta give. And soon. The sooner, the better. Because if this financial crisis continues unabated, I suspect that we're in for a long, ugly period of deep recession from which it will take many long years to emerge. If that happens here, it will be felt worldwide, meaning the entire world is going to feel the pinch, since economics is now all globalized. That can't be good for countries struggling toward peace and stability. If anything, it will destabilize them even more. And all that's going to mean is more war, more bloodshed, more lives lost in futility. Competition for scarcer and scarcer resources is the number one cause of modern warfare, and if no one's got any money, the gulf between haves and have-nots will widen even more than it is today. I just hope that there is someone, somewhere, with some wisdom who can staunch the financial bleeding before it's too late to do anything about it.
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