Is there anything worse than being broke?

March 8, 2010 by munky · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Economy, General, Rants 
I'll sell you my tie

I'll sell you my tie

Some people will say so. Most of them aren’t broke so, do their opinions really matter? I mean, I can look at the bright side, I have my family, my health, my house, etc. Ok, well, the health is questionable (large amounts of stress does that to people), stress in the family, and the consistent fear of losing my house and everything.

Simply put, being broke is about one of the worst things that can happen to you. Not because of the lack of money, because it’s true, money doesn’t buy happiness. It’s the fear and anxiety surrounding the future. An unknown future.

For the last year I have been on unemployment, simultaneously looking for work and going to school. I’ve managed to get by, even with all of the income that is no longer coming in (we made roughly 50% less in 2009 than we did in 2008). I was proud of myself, putting us in a position where even with both of us losing jobs and taking substantial cuts in pay, we could still squeak by.

With summer nearing, I began seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I’m a semi-finalist of a major scholarship which would give me a livable stipend (starting at $25,000 a year). I’ve got realistic chances for great internships that would provide decent pay and a wealth of experience. It looked like all of my hard work may be beginning to pay off. All of the restless nights working on school work, studying and forcing myself to understand and apply the concepts, working hard on teams to complete projects and set up conferences. Then yesterday I found out my unemployment benefits are tapped out, a couple of weeks shy of a full year.

Fear, anxiety. How am I going to get by? How am I going to keep paying the bills, keep a roof over our heads, put food on the table. This is where broke is the worst. It isn’t that you aren’t being a man or a woman, doing everything you can to make things right. It’s the lack of any control, knowing you are powerless to fight back.

I’ve applied for my extension, and even though everything appears to be ok, but who knows. I have no power to make them do anything, and now all I can do is hope and wait that that check keeps coming. In the mean time I will keep doing what I do, yet deep down slightly unhinged by the fear.

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Fear mongering takes us to other times

February 20, 2009 by munky · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Economy, Politics, Rants 
NSDAP election poster in Vienna in 1930. Translation: "We demand freedom and bread".

NSDAP election poster in Vienna in 1930. Translation: "We demand freedom and bread".

Namely the 1930’s. The landscape, a defaulted Germany. After being defeated and economically devasted from this first World War, Germany is in dire straights. The thoughts come to mind of the woman taking a wheelbarrow full of money to the baker for a loaf of bread. As she goes outside to get her wheelbarrow, she finds the wheelbarrow gone, but all of the money still there. When a wheelbarrow full of money is worth less than the wheelbarrow, things are in bad shape. Then in 1934, with the death of Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler abolished the presidential office to become Führer. We should all know what happens next.

Although America may not be in the exact same position to have it’s democracy overthrown in favor of a dictatorship, we are suffering many of the symptoms. We are all in fear right now, and this is the real weapon of a tyrant. Who is this tyrant? I have no clue, even if he or she did exist. So before you start, leave the Obama hating out of this. You’ll miss the point.

Right now we are puppets. Just watch. One word from a politician will make sweeping changes within the people. Case in point. Christopher Dodd makes a remark about the need for nationalization. What happens? The banking sector crashes. They have us by the balls and they know it.

I am urging anyone with one iota of sense to begin thinking for yourself. I watch the news get more cloudy and murky daily. They completely miss the point more often than not. They make representations of the truth, most often comparing apples to oranges. Either too many of these reporters are clueless, or well too clued in. I applaud Meredith Whitney, formally of Oppenheimer Securities. She was the obscure analyst that rang alarm bells on October 31st, 2007 about Citigroup. The market listened. Even more importantly, Citigroup listened.

The difference between reacting from truth and reacting from a rumor is the company’s reaction. If the nationalization threat was immediately on Citi and BofA, changes would have occurred already. Instead, only the markets reacted out of fear. Imagine waking up sick this morning to find that Bank of America had dropped from $3.93 to $2.66 in just a couple of hours. Out of a rumor. The stock is back at $3.68 right now. Still below its real value but about 30% better than it’s intraday low. That should tell you something.

So people, please please please stop running around like mindless sheep. We say we don’t believe everything we hear on TV, yet the stock market proves otherwise. Maybe I need to go on and say Jesus told me he was coming back tomorrow, and that if you wanted to get into heaven you needed to give me all of your money and assets! I’d make Warren Buffett look like he needed food stamps.

(image from Wikipedia)

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