Comments on: Nationalizing Banks

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:51:49 +0000

My Mother has been in interest bearing, fully insured accounts for years. She’s done this once, and wasn’t interested in doing it again. She is completely liquid and her money increases, at a very low rate to be sure, every month. Her stock portfolio dropped when the Shrubbery came in and wasn’t doing anything when she finally made her move. It made money for her under Clinton, but nothing this century. The other thing she didn’t like is that her brokers kept getting bought up, and when UBS bought them, she lost the broker she had always worked with and didn’t like the new guy.

She got out of real estate in 2004, and made money not only on price, but on holding the mortgage when she sold it.

The last “deal” she turned down was an annuity being pushed by AIG. She does all right and I pay attention to her. She does watch Cramer, but for the entertainment value, not advice.

She was a bookkeeper for 45 years and wants the numbers to balance.

By: Jack K., the Grumpy Forester

Jack K., the Grumpy Forester — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:00:08 +0000

…heck, I don’t even trust my own investment advice; why would I trust the notions of someone who willingly elects to live in the path of oncoming hurricanes?

[reflects on the surrounding highly flammable forested neighborhood and all those suspiciously dormant nearby volcanoes; dismisses these concerns out of hand]

It has become grimly fascinating to watch the gripping obsession with which the media focuses on the daily casualty report from the Dow, SP500, and Nasdaq. While these markets do as a whole represent a significant segment of the investment world, the way that these markets can be spooked by rumors, casual comments, and shoot-from-the-hip instantaneous commentary strongly suggests that a good supply of Bell canning jars with new lids, a shovel, and some available space out back behind the edge of the lawn is as good an investment strategy as anything else…