Not-quite-nightmares

[missroserose]

Last night, Brian and I spent some time discussing the dissolution of the financial sector. Not with any real purpose in mind - I mean, neither of us can really do much about it, and fortunately we haven't had much in the way of investments to be concerned about (hurrah FDIC protection for savings accounts). Mostly, it was just the sheer level of helplessness we felt over the whole situation - even though it only affects us peripherally, it's still affecting us, and of course people we know are affected much more strongly. And as Brian put it, "These people are the financiers: the (mostly) men who run the world through the power of money. That's why we give them this much money. And suddenly they're telling us that they've lost all of our money, through utterly preventable means, simply because not a single one of them said 'No, that's an unsustainable investment model'? 'Yes, that will get us all fabulously rich but will destroy the system beneath us'? 'No, we have a responsibility to the government, or barring that, our investors, not to run headlong over a cliff and take the entire American economy with us'?"

While the discussion was purely academic in nature, I think a lot of the deep-seated anxiety bled through into my subconscious, because I didn't sleep well last night. I kept having dreams of an impending alien invasion of an unknown sort, and even though no aliens had actually shown up, and indeed there hadn't been any indication of an invasion past some mysterious decoded messages (sent, appropriately enough, through the stock market), the entire world was unraveling as terror rippled through the strata of society.

I think that, in the end, is what scares me the most - not that some mysterious external (or internal) force, no matter how powerful, will come and wipe us out, but that people will become afraid that such will happen. Because that kind of widespread panic is far, far more likely to have immediate negative ramifications for human society, and all that we have built, than some shadowy outside threat that may or may not ever materialize.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Comments

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I have deliberately avoided looking at my 401K account recently, but it was disastrous enough before this that the total is probably significantly less than what I deposited. Given my own money issues, that freaks me out, but at least I'm already sleeping poorly.

In other news, that poem resonates deeply for me (as you might have guessed given that my Christmas mix is titled "Slouching Toward Bethlehem".) and by coincidence something I was watching last night (that I can't recall) was quoting it. By other coincidence, I love that your radio station is playing SBoL.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

I've been really digging that Supreme Beings of Leisure album lately. Enough so that it's penetrating into my internal radio station, apparently. :)

I'm only peripherally familiar with the poem by itself, but I read the first stanza as part of Achebe's Things Fall Apart back in British Literature II, and it stuck with me. For some reason a couple of lines from it were in my head as I woke this morning (probably for the same reason as the dreams), and when I looked up the whole thing it struck me how appropriate it was (especially the last two lines) to the current mess our country has found itself in. Which isn't exactly surprising; it's a classic poem because it describes an unchanging part of human nature.

I just have to keep reminding myself that the wheel turns, and while we may be on a downslide now, eventually things will get better. Say, when Obama wins (http://kottke.org/when-obama-wins/)...

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Yeats was an optimist.

That said, I keep hearing about the bailout and wanting to wring somebody's neck because that much money with zero discretion on how to use it? It's a Doctor Doom plot. Hank Paulson could be a Doctor Doom robot for all we know. It just smacks of a bad Bond villain scheme. I'm starting to control-F through transcripts of meetings looking for the phrase "moo hoo haa haa" and I know it's going to turn up eventually.

I've heard this described as the Berlin Wall falling, except for capitalism, and that at least puts it into an interesting frame for me -- watching history being written in a blind blood-pumping panic, but we've seen this show before, back in 2001, and I didn't quite like the way that particular plot unfolded. Needs a rewrite and a third act. And here there's an awareness that the bailout's not going to do damn near enough to prevent this from happening again, but I detect the mindset that it's not the current administration/legislature's problem.

[jamesd.livejournal.com]

I do have money invested and to invest. Last week I switched some money from low volatility investments to high to exploit the drops and I'll do more this week. Back in April I set up an unchangeable until next April commitment to put around 60-70% of my income each month into my pension pot, effectively a 401(k). The markets falling is perfect for that plan. Provided they stop falling at some point. :)

The value of my investments is mostly down and there's more of that to come but overall this is a great time to be following the maxim that you buy when there's blood on the floor. Just need to be patient and not find another 1930s happening.

Do tell your political representatives that they should get on with sticking their fingers in the dyke before it collapses onto their and our heads. Nobody gets elected for playing the fiddle when they should be saving the economy.

Enjoy history and interesting times happening around us and remember that cash is king and credit can evaporate, so now's a good time to be saving. Well, unless you want to help the markets by being an obedient consumer and spending as much as you can to help to keep company profits up. :)

I've money in guaranteed savings accounts equivalent to several years of my spending at the moment. Makes it a lot easier to sit back and enjoy history passing in front of my eyes.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

That does make things a bit easier. I'm actually sort of sorry that we *don't* have anything to invest right now, because you can't buy much lower than right now. Given that we don't have much saved, though, we're working right now on kicking the tail end of debt out the door and getting that several months' worth of saved cash in savings. Should be handy when we move in a year.

Amusingly, a woman I know (in late middle-age) was saying "Yeah, we had some money for retirement, invested in stocks, of course. It's probably going to end up worthless, but it doesn't bug me 'cos it's the first time we've ever even had anything there, and I could never quite bring myself to believe it."

[jamesd.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd like to hope that that woman has a well diversified set of investments. With lots of cash as of a year ago, to protect the capital value if things fell a lot more.

Seems that you two are following a nice plan to get financially stable. Years beats months if you can do it and want even more security. I'm working on getting a big enough 401(k)-equivalent retirement pot to retire as soon as possible, if necessary, and on building up enough cash and non-pension assets to live until I can take that retirement money. Not planning to retire as soon as I can but it's nice financial security to have the minimal capability to do it.