Wednesday I had the opportunity to get together with a good friend for lunch. He also had a few birthday gifts for me as we could not get together because he is working 24/7 most weeks. Besides a couple of very good cigars, I received a book that he said was right up my alley.
THE MATCH KING by Frank Partnoy is a book I highly recommend after just reading a few pages. It is the story of Ivar Kreuger, "the financial genius behind a century of Wall Street scandals."
One quote from Ivar Kreuger, I would like to leave you with. "Everything in life is founded on confidence."
Over the months that MONEYTHOUGHTS has been written, no about of analysis of economic events can replace the simple truth that when people invest, confidence is the most important ingredient. When confidence disappears and panic sets in, markets implode.
Greed is not going to go away. More people need to understand that in a complex financial system, controls are necessary. The fact that Phil Gramm and Alan Greenspan did not understand this has resulted in millions of people losing the little that they had. Government, the Federal Government is the appropriate organization to repair the damage done to the financial system and the appropriate organization to put in place the regulations, the accountability, the transparency and the enforcement of the laws that govern our financial service industry. The lack of financial literacy in this country is the fulcrum by which the greedy rob the working class of America. When people understand this, then change will come to Wall Street because Washington will have received the message from the people loud and clear.
Stay tuned.
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3 comments:
Oh, I agree with this statement about confidence. Now, we have the lack of this very important feeling, in our government as well as our banking institutions.
I think there is still a lot of money in the mattress due to the lack of confidence. Even the institutions are lacking confidence. They still do not want to put out too many loans because "they" lack the confidence in themselves to be able to disseminate the good borrowers from the risky borrowers.
Lack of confidence is keeping the little guy out of the market. We are a show me group and yet, we still don't trust what we see, ie the stock market yesterday.
You nailed it again, Moneythoughts! We've all lost confidence. And the longer it goes on the way it is, the deeper the grave they're digging for the millions of "little people."
After we all lost our shirts in the meltdown, who has guts enough to jump back in? Not this kid! I've pretty well accepted the fact that my portfolio will NOT double in 9 years (as the Advisor told me), and there's no pot of gold and no rainbow!
Yeats wrote a dark poem called The Second Coming, and some of his lines are haunting me. We face a bleak landscape, financially.
Wish I could summon the hope that any of this will change, but I cannot. I see nothing on the horizon to persuade me.
Do you have anything?
Summer
I SO love that quote.
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