I'm Glad $700 Billion Led to Stock Rebound

Oh wait. It didn't.

Switch to Bond Investment in the Fall

OK, so I won't really go into it here, but Black Monday 1987 was a pretty formative day in my life. It set some key values and ensured I would never be a stock trader.

Watching this current economic situation, not being an economist, listening to some economists arguing against the bailout, I have been wondering what we really should do. Smart people make a convincing case on both sides, and public opinion is on the no-bailout side.

Then I wondered, "What caused Black Monday in 1987?" So I fired up my old friend Wikipedia, and searched Black Monday 1987.

And the answer is not particularly interesting to me.

But I did note that it was: October 19, 1987.

I also noted that there is some disambiguation with Black Monday and Tuesday 1929, which were October 28 and 29.

And I thought: both in October. Hmmm.

And we're almost in October. Hmmm.

All three in the first five weeks of fall, which is like another word for crash.

So, I say damn you Autumnal Equinox!

March, heck! Beware the Ides of October.

What Me Worry? 400% Inflation in 10 Years

CNNMoney.com reports that Saudi Arabia is concerned high oil prices will eventually dampen the world's appetite for oil.

Really? No kidding.

Although the move by Saudi Arabia may provide some short-term savings -- especially since much of this price increase is based upon rampant barely fact-based speculation -- a small dip in prices will not deter the march toward alternative sources of energy.

In other CNNMoney.com news: Honda rolls out fuel cell car.

Put Corn Down and Slowly Back Away, Americans

Gasoline is, like $800 a gallon, and I eat approximately 1 lb. of corn every 30 seconds.

The population continues to grow. I admit it. I am worried.

Read more in the New York Times.


Thanks Wendy and/or Wes.

Oil Prices Drop, Gas Follows ... or Not

This morning I read on CNN.com that oil prices have dropped considerably since Friday.

So, of course, I saw a change in prices at the pumps on the way to work.

No.

Wait ... what?

That's funny because when I read a story about the price of oil going up, the pumps always show an immediate increase.

Nah, those gasoline folks aren't unethical scum. Not at all.

BBC Illustrates Mortgage Mess

Although this is already a bit dated, I encourage you to take a look at the BBC's graphic depiction of the problem with sub-prime mortgages.

Separate from the issue is the fact that I think this is an excellent example of new Web-based journalism. The BBC is using the medium to its advantage with visual examples over gray blankets of text.

Some of the graphics are even interactive.

Thanks, Wes.

You Are Not How Much You Make

There's somethin' wrong with the world today
I don't know what it is
Something's wrong with our eyes

We're seeing things in a different way
And God knows it ain't His
It sure ain't no surprise

We're livin' on the edge

- Aerosmith, Living on the Edge

The New York Times has an interesting story on the status of traditional professions, such as medicine and law. If you read between the lines, however, the story is more interesting.

You're more than your job. But take a moment to read the subtexts of status and money. These are powerful themes that have entered the public consciousness, and we seldom stop to question them.

Here's my favorite quotation:

Many young associates, she added, spent their lunch hours making lavish purchases on NeimanMarcus.com, just to remind themselves that what they did counted for something.

This is simply brilliant, and it captures everything in a nutshell. You're an attorney, and all this work counts for something because you can shop at Neiman Marcus. Brilliant!

1840s Connection I Intended to Make

As I wrote on Sunday, I noticed a connection between the 1840s writings on Henry David Thoreau in Walden and Karl Marx in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844.

However, as I searched back through Thoreau's first chapter, I failed to find what I thought that I remembered. When I found some link in the writings, I wrote about it, and attributed the mismatch to faulty memory. I finally found the intended paragraphs yesterday afternoon.

Thoreau wrote:

Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluous course labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day to day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be anything but a machine (pp. 6-7).

Marx wrote:

In the first place, the raising of wages gives rise to overwork among the workers. The more they wish to earn, the more must they sacrifice their time and carry out slave-labor, in the service of avarice completely losing all their freedom, thereby they shorten their lives (p. 22, emphasis original).

If you have never read Walden, I recommend it with the highest praise that I can give. The first chapter, titled Economy, and the final conclusions contain some of the most accurate perceptions of the human condition ever observed.

A lot of people have critiqued "keeping up with the Jonses" and other problems of avarice. Yet Thoreau's words still ring true a century and a half later. Why do we live to work when we should work only to live? Read Walden, and you likely will never think about this question the same again.

This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the lift of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once (p. 57).

Public Consciousness of Mid-1840s

In the past two weeks, I have been reading a couple of books written during the mid-1840s. Either one taken alone tells you what one author was thinking. Taken together, however, you start to get a sense of the public zeitgeist, if you will.

Take one sentiment on profit for the sake of profit.

Writing in Walden, Henry David Thoreau wrote:

"I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but unquestionably, that the corporations may be enriched" (p. 28).

Compare that with what Karl Marx said in The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844:

"The the advance made by human labor in converting the product of nature into the manufactured product of nature increases, not the wages of labor, but in part the number of profitable capitals, and in part the size of every subsequent capital in comparison with the foregoing" (p. 39).

These two authors have been widely read throughout history. If you read both works, you will find a number of similarities between them. For Thoreau, he wanted to "simplify" his life, and this individual simplification was the suggestion. For Marx, societal simplification was the path to equality.

It interests me that the public consciousness -- on both sides of the Atlantic -- included a frustration with runaway profit motives. Yet in America this seems to have fallen by the wayside. No profit is big enough.