Stocks & Stones may Break our Bones

My wife thinks its nobodies business, but if you’re writing an honest commentary then you need to tell the truth. So here is my reality, I’m underemployed, underinsured, underwater on my mortgage, and sadly I’m not alone. Unfortunately more and more Americans are finding themselves in the same boat. What’s even sadder is that it didn’t and doesn’t have to be this way. So what’s the cause? In very simplistic terms, it’s Greed, Laziness and a little global conspiracy for good measure. Now obviously G&L are nothing new, they are 2 of the 7 deadly sins that have been part of religious dogma for millennia. What are new is the scale, speed, and shear number of people that can be affected and or “infected”. What I mean by infected is how easily people can get caught up in the greedy allure of an easy money bubble. The most recent bubble being housing and we all know how that’s turning out. I want to focus on the Stock Market and how technology and speed have turned it into just another form of gambling. Now don’t get me wrong, I like to gamble but we should save that for the casinos, lottery, or a friendly game of poker.

            

When I was first learning about economics the concept of a stock market made sound financial sense. It kind of worked like this; a company (that actually produced something) needed capital to grow so they offered shares of ownership (stocks) in return for a percent of the profits that were then paid as a dividend. For years the basic strategy was to buy quality stocks and hold them (prices didn’t fluctuate much), sometimes for generations. Wealthier people just bought more and middle class people either bought or were given stock in the companies where they worked. That’s what it was like growing up in Flint, MI a General Motors town. Everyone I knew had some relationship with GM and only bought and drove GM cars. They also bought stock when they could. The community was made up of executives, supervisors, and line workers that worked at GM as well as at suppliers like Goodyear, Dow Chemical, & AC-Delco. There was a pride and sense of ownership, back then you could get your butt kicked for owning a Ford let alone a Japanese car.

            

Then something started to change, companies started outsourcing, workers quit caring about quality, and the markets became obsessed with share price instead of company value. I don’t know what happened first or who’s to blame, I only know that it’s been spiraling downward ever since. This brings me back to the markets and how they help perpetuate the death spiral. Because everything has become so fast with computerized trading and fractions of a second can mean big bucks, the market has become very short sighted, it’s all about the quarterly reports, that’s only 3 months of a persons or companies working life. If a company is doing poorly but says that they are going to lay off employees they get rewarded by the market and their stock price goes up. If a company is doing well but didn’t meet the analyst’s expectations their stock gets clobbered. To compound the problem executive compensation has been tied to the performance of the stock not just the company. Back in the day, the average CEO made 50 to 100 times the average workers salary. Now it’s become obscene with that number rising 10 fold at the same time that worker wages and benefits are being eviscerated. It’s no wonder that just like me the average American is struggling.

            

So is all this a result of a fluke global recession caused by a greed driven housing bubble or is it something more? Well I for one love conspiracy theories and ever since hearing way back in high school about David (very rich guy) Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission and it’s goal of “remaking global trade and finance” I have believed that eventually we would have what George Bush Sr. (a Trilateral member) called “A New World Order”. I also believed this could be a good thing as it would create a better chance for peace in the world. But what I didn’t realize then, but am starting to see and feel now is that to create a true, fair, and balanced global economy you need a level playing field. The problem is that America and the EU are to high and even with China and Asia’s growth there is no way they can catch up. So that means our economy needs to come down so we can meet them halfway. Looking around at how fast the world and its economies are changing the only thing I can think to say is “are we there yet?”


To view the column in it's original form go to page 13 of the following link. Winters Express 5/19/11

I'm only human - but what kind?

I think I’m a defective human being. How’s that for a way to start a conversation. Let me rephrase that a little. I think I’m either a defective human, an enlightened human or least of the three possibilities, a normal human.
Let me state my case. There are some basic human traits that got our species to this point in time:
~ Walking upright. Okay, that’s a given most of the time or at least on the day after I see the chiropractor.
~ Use of tools. I know many people have told me I look like Al from the TV show within a TV Show, “Tool Time” on “Home Improvement,” but as my wife and John Siracusa will attest, if it’s a power tool, you better keep it away from me.
~ Building fire and cooking food. I almost got kicked out of high school for playing with a makeshift blowtorch made out of a syringe, gasoline and a lighter, and all I can say about cooking (and eating) food is that it’s one of the surest ways to enlightenment I know.
~ Self awareness. Yes, I look in the mirror and know that it’s me, except on the days I see some old guy that reminds me of my dad.
~ Ability to reason. As my wife is so fond of saying, “Things happen for a reason” — I just can’t always explain it.
~ Use of language to communicate. On this one, I prefer a good stare or roll of the eyes than to actually speaking.
So, those were some fun basics, now here come the biggies:
~ Desire to procreate. I ‘m different than most humans on this, as I have never — and I mean never — had a need to create offspring. I don’t know if it was a lack of physical need or my life experiences (nature vs. nurture) that made me not care if my genetic code or bloodline ends with me. I think that answer gives me one notch towards enlightened because it means my ego doesn’t have to see a mini-me to be satisfied. Oh, and just to be clear, sex and procreation are two totally different desires. Enough said.
~ Belief in a higher power. On this one I make Tom Stone look like a choirboy. I guess because I was raised without any religious teachings or even discussions in our house I didn’t even start thinking about God until I was a teenager. Since I had never been indoctrinated with any set of beliefs and as a rebellious youth who questioned authority, it just didn’t make sense that the world as I knew it was designed and controlled by some all-knowing but unseen omnipotent person or thing.
By that age, I’d heard Mr. Spock on Star Trek say “It’s illogical” so many times that I pretty much couldn’t help but feel the same way about God. I just didn’t understand how for millennium, people had been going to war and killing each other in the name of religion, and I still don’t understand how it continues. Even though I don’t personally believe in God, I’m actually envious of the faithful with their unquestioning belief. I sometimes wish I could trust that much.
~ Knowing we are mortal. We’re all going to die, even though to live life, we have to be in a state of denial about this fact. I never thought much about death growing up even though it was all around me. Two of my sisters, my grandparents, countless pets that I buried in the back yard and, of course, all the deaths in Viet Nam that we saw on the news every night. The specter of “assured mutual annihilation” also hung over our heads during the Cold War as well as all sorts of natural disasters.
As I get older, I find myself thinking about death much more often, not because of any health issues but just because I know it closer. Since I don’t believe in an afterlife, I don’t fear death; sadly I sometimes even long for it. What I really fear is dying. I don’t want to suffer and I don’t want my family and friends to suffer either. But the reality is that we will, some of us physically and all of us emotionally. What I fear the most and what causes me the most anguish is the thought of separation from my wife. I don’t know which of us will be left behind, only that most likely, one of us will be.
So, as I think about some of the things that make me human, I realize that it’s the thinking of those thoughts that separates me and mankind from most of the other life forms on this planet we call home. I’m now even more confused than ever as to what kind of human being I am, so I guess maybe that just makes me normal.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 14 of the following link. Winters Express 5/5/11