Confidence is Nothing Without Value

Headlines everywhere today, are discussing how investors need to hold out and keep a positive outlook on where the markets are going. For seven days straight, the markets have been in negative territory, and yet the general public is being asked to stay positive, instead of dealing with the reality of the situation. How can people possibly hold their heads above water, when governments are tossing money at financial institutions that are failing, not because they are losing money, but because the average investor can't remain confident in an institution that has been absorbing money faster than the investors can put back into it.

Blame Wall Street, and blame the government for not owning up to being responsible with money. It is nearly impossible to look at an investment portfolio these days, and confidently get a solid understanding of what it's doing. For example, today I accessed my 401K plan online, and looked over my portfolio. Talk about scant information! I had one table showing all my funds, bonds, stocks, etc., along with prices of the stock at purchase, and quantity of stock I owned. Fair enough. Then it shows way at the bottom, my total earnings on these investments. No current stock price, no market values, and no break down of gains or losses. The company that runs this online software is CitiSmithBarney, which when I opened the 401K, was just SmithBarney, and also not to mention, that when I log in, I get a disclaimer saying that ING has just completed its acquisition of CitiStreet, which is an affiliate of CitiGroup. My eyes began to cross after the acknowledgment of CitiSmithBarney.

Wait, there's more! Now I see my list of investments, and then decide I'm going to look the stocks up on Google's finance site, and I could only find four out of the ten items in there. For instance, I was looking to do more research on the value of one of the items, Western Asst Mgmt US Gov. What the hell is that? There was no corresponding stock symbol. Why is it abbreviated. It doesn't come up in a search on Google, and Western Asset's web site, does even list it as a product, unless it's been named something else. I couldn't find any contact information on the site, so that I could call someone, and ask my unfulfilled questions. What kind of operation is this?

It is very frustrating to see that a Wall Street company, that is responsible for millions of people's hard earned money, and makes millions in profits a day, can offer up such a lousy excuse for an investment portfolio. It's almost as if they don't want you to understand it, because then it would be a lot easier to manipulate your money to grant them more profit.

The lesson for Wall Street to learn today is to respect your customers, and show a little more consideration for those who keep your hefty paychecks rolling in. If there is no confidence in the market, then it's because people just don't know. We are given half rate information, and expecting our advisers to do their job, and make sure we are headed toward a more secure future. So much for that. Would you invest in something you were unsure of, or something you nothing about, and if you did invest, would you be sure that things were going well, considering you nothing about what was going on?

Even our government is not providing the confidence we need in the markets. Today, George W. Bush gave a speech in the Rose Garden, explaining to us, all the facets of a failing economy. He simply restated everything we already know, and is not providing Americans with a sound and consistent plan. It's been 2 weeks already since the plan has been put into place, and the market is just getting worse. What is the plan? Why isn't it working? Why are we being told to not worry about the economy, yet every morning we wake up to a market that is diving? More rules need to be in place holding the Treasury accountable for all purchases and bail outs. All transactions should be openly available online for the taxpayer to see, so that they know what their return will be if and when the market climbs out f the depths. Also, all Wall Street firms need to be handed regulation making robust information readily available to public investors. Information just as well structured, and easy to understand as that of Google's or Yahoo's financing sites.

Information is a powerful tool. It can be used to take advantage of certain situations by limiting the amount that is granted forthwith. It can also benefit those who want to be informed, in order to make better decisions, because if those who are limiting information are harnessing that power, then the less informed will fail to effectively support the systems to which they contribute.

Confusion is Abuse in the U.S. Economy.

One Guy Who Has Seen It All Doesn't Like What He Sees Now - WSJ.com

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In recent past articles, I've discussed deregulation, by our U.S. government, as the primary factor in the economic mess we're in now. In the article linked above, Mr. Bernstein has stated that the major contributing factor of our economic state, and the potential for this to turn into the next best thing to the 1939 Depression, is borrowing, and the investment rabbles that went unregulated by our government. In my opinion Bernstein is getting at a point in this article, that investors and the lending industry knew that if they could race to some undetermined finish line (the precursor to a market crash) with fattened funds, then they could sell off and come off the bull with a lot of money. This seems to be a fixed market in all senses. Take the risks up front, sell off the risk, and then walk away without worry of being anchored down by worthless stock.
Basically, the government was not watching the markets. The economy to me, represents pirates pillaging and looting large cruise ships of consumers. Bernstein even goes onto note that houses cost so much, that you can't buy anything in real estate with cash anymore. It all gets filtered down through the lending market, and this is where consumers represent the looted cruise ship, because a bulk of the real estate market are homeowners or buyers, who don't borrow, they are held under the pirate saber of loans. There are no other options. There's no protection for consumers in this current market, and this holds true in other realms of the market too, not just real estate. The Fed, now, is taking a top down approach, and funneling more money into a system that has way too much of it, and seeking more and more. Instead they should, what Bernstein states, "underpin the consumer". Start from the bottom, and in conjunction to this start sheparding big business lenders into fair loan practices.

Confusion is Confusion

Reading about a possible cause for the recent recession in the U.S. markets, a thought struck me that unearthed a clear explanation for why so much turmoil is arising not only in the economy, but also, the psychological security, the American people caught in this rabble, are lacking. It's outright people misleading people! I thought, "Hey, it's plain as day". In the New York Times an economic columnist was baffled at a potential trigger to the recent market recession, known as "liquidity puts". I'm no economist, but if an individual who writes about economy for the New York Times, cannot understand a certain market tactic, then it seems to me there's an inside to the markets that is generally unknown to the Fed, and the public investors for the most part. What we have here, is a market being driven by corporate entities, and not the investors. Corporations who funneled money into the housing market, expecting higher returns, drove the prices through the roof, in order to double their returns. Now, we left floating in a financial limbo, waiting for the market to either bottom out, or be rescued by the Fed.
I'm all about high risk, for a high return, but everyone was doing it! Everyone put all their bets on one thing, which to me is an unspoken scam by Wall Street. They invested, and they drove to the information highways a promise of profit to be made. Why? Because a corporate investor knows it's a sure thing, if they advertise to the public that investing in their investment is the right move. Sounds like a scam to me. As with all else that's been going on since 2000, including the Enron scandal, Arthur Andersen, and the list goes on.
If you're not catching my drift, so to speak, then let's lay it out. In my opinion, these corporate entities are pretty much running the investment show: what they say (invest in), goes (public investors invest in). And when the market gets a little shaky or tight, they hedge their losses, and take the money and run. All the while, once caught, years of litigation, and a slap on the hand, and the big-wig executives walk off with a lot of money. Your money!
Investment, these days has turned into a scam artists dream. I have investments all over the place, and with the latest news, I don't feel I can trust these companies with my money anymore, because they treat it like it's theirs, and not mine, and it's really hurting the security of the world in general, not just its wallet.

Sited articles:

• New York Times: Business, March 19, 2008 Can't Grasp Credit Crisis? Join the Club
  
• CNN: Money, March 20, 2008 9:12am Brokers who lie, and more subprime nightmares

I Know How It Feels

Wow! Who would've thought? And, here I am, thinking I am the only one in debt, continuously being taken advantage of financially. After reading this article, I've come to a conclusion that all lenders are scammers. I feel that in the past a lender allows people who don't have money to acquire a product, that is way out of their annual income (even over 5 years of income), and in turn pay a reasonable amount of interest on this money loan. Sounds normal right? But, there's a catch: adjustable interest rates, fees, and money sucking lawyers, who get paid by loan companies to find out how to get more money out of you.
Now I'm not against free enterprise, but what I am against is expecting more money from individuals, who cannot afford it in the first place. What I am saying here, big corporate bullies, is that you are drawing water from a well of mud. Basically you prey on people who don't have a lot of money in the first place, and then you continue to purge them of money, until they settle bankruptcy, or are sent to the credit agencies for delinquency. And then even though they are delinquent on their loans, you continue to offer more loans, and credit solutions, that simply are drawing more money out of a already dry well. What in the hell is going on here? You could argue that people need to be responsible with their finances, but this represents a failure of loaners to manage their business.
I'd have to say, that with our ailing economy, and the fact that housing foreclosures, and bad credit are mostly to blame, it's wholly evident that corporate lenders have raped the public of stable economy, and a blanket wealth. Instead, now we have the middle class and the poor getting poorer, and very few rich getting richer. Are the wealthy aware that they are nothing without well financed lower classes?

Just in case the link is broken: article