POOR RICHARDS REPORT
The Trumpets are Blowing Chapter 4
CAVEAT EMPTOR! BUYER BEWARE!!!!!
The stock market crash of 1973-74 was a beauty. It was caused by Watergate and OPEC and we had to wait in line for gasoline at high prices. All the safeguards put in place in the 1930’s and 1940-41 worked like a charm.
The public was bombarded by the most famous ad. “Merrill Lynch – We are BULLISH on America!”’ It did not say or even mention stocks, but the country. It calmed the public to stay the course of sensible investing.
Meanwhile back on the ranch (Wall Street) they were getting their comeuppance. Everything and everyone that centered on personal gain at the expense of the public and “the common good” got wiped off the street. When all the losses were tallied up the “street” took a 50% “haircut across the board”.
The Congress congratulated itself on a job well done, but failed to hold any hearings on how improve the situation. They left it up to the survivors to assess the damage and improve where there were weaknesses.
The red caution light suddenly turned bright green in the financial districts: the public be dammed. It was “our hide that counts” since they ran the businesses. (The same mantra is now prevalent in the Congress. “We are responsible for 300 million people – we should be paid well for it at the taxpayers’ expense.”)
The first new plot was options. With a little money (easy credit again, but disguised) one could buy a call (option to buy at a set price over set time) or a put (an option to sell a security at a set price or a certain period of time) aided by computers. In the beginning it was a disaster even for major institutions. Firms that had little control over salesmen quietly sunk in the manure pile of greed. New laws and new restrictions were instituted by the wall street. Now only 85% of all trades were losers.
Instead of quietly changing the laws of mutual funds (mainly because the efficiency of computers) mutual funds grew to be mighty aircraft carriers in the sea of investment pools.
Program trading programs were designed to bring money in from staid long term institutional funds. This was the cause of the crash of ’87. The computer whiz kids sat at their desks counting the commissions and forgot to pull the plug. At the end of the day they too got hosed.
The Reagan tax cuts brought more funds flowing everywhere including the markets.
George H W Bush wisely raised taxes a little bit to slow the economy down.
Robert Rubin, then Secretary of the Treasury, (the first of many Goldman Sack’s men to serve high public office officials) came up with a novel way of reducing government debt and taking campaign issue away from Republican candidates. He lowered the capital gains taxes on long term holdings down to as low as 15%. He also wiped out short term trading tax penalties. You were now taxed as ordinary income. The one thing the public hates to do is pay taxes to those bastards in Washington D.C., but 15% is really a deal.
So all the mom and pops nationwide sold their holdings and bought securities that had a better dividend or growth potential. All those receipts reduced the national debt dramatically until 9/11 occurred.
During the Clinton years Sandy Weil, the chairman of Citicorp, convinced Congress to repeal the Glass-Stiegel Act and the last check on Wall Street was dumped into the slimy garbage can of greed.
Now all the safeguards put in place are gone, but the powers that be are wiser than their predecessors. Just Ask Them.
What they have done is to protect themselves after a crisis. They start off protecting the client until it gets messy, then the gloves come off so they can grab the funds with hidden fees and penalties that are a God Given right.
So one final thought, the economy is slowly climbing back into positive territory, but all the safeguards and protections have been trashed.
When this happens it will be from one country to the next. It could start with the United States or Saudi Arabia, or India, or Chile.
One thing is for sure. The Nazi Gestapo of WWII are now our Major Bankers worldwide, and our elected officials are the concentration camp guards while we wait to take a “shower”.
Mark Twain is quoted, “ History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme”.
Next letter is all the reforms that we need – worldwide – to avoid Armageddon. (Revelations 16:16 Bible New Testament)
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