I've been out of the Hollywood Bubble for a few days now, and my mom considers NPR her white-noise, so I've been forced to face some non-fiction while visiting the nation's capital. It's nice to exercise that part of my brain, although good news is hard to come by out here.
In light of the recent British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico…
My mother got a phone call from her financial advisor yesterday.
He said, “We have to talk. You own stock in BP.”
To add to the melodrama of the moment, the battery on her portable phone died and she didn’t get to finish the conversation. When she tried to call back, he was on another call, probably with another unfortunate BP stock-holder…
My mom said, "Well, we probably should have sold it the day after it happened.."
I just don't know why we all keep playing this game. Good, honest people accepting that thousands of their hard-earned dollars can LITERALLY disappear overnight due to things that are totally out of their control.
How are we all so invested--pun, not intended--in a system that is little more than a glorified, overly legislated and equally loop-holed game of Russian Roulette?
It’s like one, big Vegas table with millions of people gathered around it. Everyone pushing in front, trying to win a buck. Some people just can't handle that kind of pressure, or they just have better things to do, so they decide to hand their cards and chips off to an honest-looking soul who seems to know what he’s doing. They trust that their broker will do his best for them, and sometimes he does, but sometimes he wanders off to check out the free buffet or see Cher or Celine Dion at the Belagio. ("Wouldn't you love to be a business owner without ever having to show up for work?")
For a long time, the system seemed to work. Brokers and Traders got rich by making their clients rich. Everyone was happy…until the Enron Scandal broke through the levee of our sense of security, paving the way for other giants to be exposed as criminals. Wall Street took a nose-dive and crashed and burned into the worst depression and recession since Black Tuesday of 1929…but that's ancient history now, right
Herein lies the problem:
My mother is the quintessential tree-hugger. (Check out her blog: The Durable Human)
She even seems to think trees are acceptable presents on special occasions. She spends her time advocating for green-spaces and sustainable eco-friendly transportation. She has literally turned off her car at red lights to spare the environment an extra few moments free of her exhaust. We would all be biking or roller-skating to work and school if she had her way.
In order to save her energy to save the planet, she delegated the responsibility of managing her stock portfolio to a professional. He often presents her with seemingly profitable stocks that often get a thumbs down because they are not friends of the environment.
She agreed to invest in BP Plc because it has made efforts in the development of solar energy and other alternative fuels.
However, on April 21, 2010, an explosion rocked the Deepwater Horizon Rig, owned by Transocean Limited, on lease to BP Plc unleashing an oil-torrent that continues to flood forth with between 1,000 and 5,000 barrels of oil per day which is going straight into the Gulf of Mexico. All of a sudden, BP is the world's greatest Eco-villain. (BP Oil Spill Timeline)
Today is May 4. It has been almost two weeks since the spill erupted. And she just got the call from her Money Guy today…
The problem? Even though my mom’s financial guy is above-board, honest, and well-intentioned…
No one else can possibly care more about your money than you do!
Brokers and Investment specialists have dozens of clients with their own special needs. With the economy in such a state of flux, it's got to be virtually impossible for them to stay on top of things.
I would love to know how a nation, nay a WORLD of people have collectively agreed that losing huge percentages of what is sometimes a life-time of savings is totally ok!
And if we were to collectively move away from the current economic situation, what would be the solution?
I guess they'd just have to start making coffee cans in Super Jumbo size...
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