The 70’s Generation the Generation that never made it….
The 70’s Generation ,Generation Failure the how and why ...
PJ Blogger (a blast from the past)
PRLog – Sep. 29, 2009 – RIDGEWOOD, N.J. — like most generations coming to age in a particular time period that era has a way of effecting ones out look throughout that rest of there life. In the 1920’s it was the devil make care attitude ,in the 1930’s the great depression ,in the 1940’s it was world war two and the greatest generation ,in the 50’s it was moving to suburbia ,in the 1960’s it was the anti war counter culture ad wanting to change the world . These generational experiences have a way of effecting the majority of that generation shaping there experience and the way we think about the world . In the 1970 ‘s oil shocks ,stagflation, international terrorism ,military failure ,stagflation ,the misery index, high divorce rate ,high drug and alcohol use ,the hang over from the sixties all lead to one over riding principle for the 70’s generation FAILURE and the 70’s generation became the generation that never really made it .
With this failure came the litany of kook conspiracy theories ,and inability to see a benevolence in the universe ,a feeling that things larger then onself were working against us . That malevolent forces beyond our control were conspiring against us. That we were helpless in the face of doom .Not trusting the markets nor the government but looking to punish and spread the misery equally far and wide, the 70’s generation embrace totalitarian socialism or communism to a greater degree than anyone since the 1930’s.
As the 70’s generation grew up it brought incompetence and disaster and mostly failure in its wake , from ENRON, the mutual fund debacle ,to the current banking and finance disaster to the destruction of wall street ,the 70’s folks have unleashed a cataclysm of disaster and failure on to the rest of us. Remember these people still think good old stagflation Jimmy Carter was a good president?
So why do I keep harping on this day in and day out ,well any economist worth his salt would admit that one of the strongest cyclical driving forces in an economy are demographics and given the most economic activity is driven by business creation and house hold formation it can be noted that from time to time an economy is blessed with demographics that favor these to factors ,but what we find in the 70’s generation is a proclivity for neither. My last reunion told the whole story ,as i am told nearly half the graduating class of 1980 had never been married . I found this simply astonishing given we came from a very upper middle class place with a “first rate education”.
No don’t get me wrong every generation has its successes and failures but some generations seem to produce more of the latter .
Interesting read. “economic activity is driven by business creation and house hold formation “. By allowing all of our manufacturing (which breeds innovation) to be ‘outsourced’ to China, we have slowed the economic engine to a crawl. As a ‘service economy’ there is a limit to what $$ can be made selling these cheaply built products, and most are ‘throw-away’ since they are either un-repairable, or it makes no economic sense to fix.
As far as the income gap, the crooks on wall street that ‘securitize’ and sell anything are the root of the problem. (taking worthless mortgages and creating ‘security backed’ peices of worthless paper that were sold to investors who made the mistake of trusting the big firms that created this toilet paper.
Make no mistake, whatever these big firms do (too big to failed, bailed out with your tax dollars) the big wigs profit, get their fee, whether the market goes up or down.
And part two of the above. To create a family and bring children into the world in these uncertain times is a big responsibility, so perhaps that creates a question for those ‘tying the knot’ and looking towards the future.
Mom and pop investors got screwed in the stock market (by computer driven institutional trading) so they looked for safety in bonds (then got screwed again by Obama when he gave the unions equity in the ‘new gm’ ahead of bondholders).
So mom and pop keep their cash under the bed, and even their stockbrokers get the shaft since their customers are afraid to trade/invest.
Oh I long for the days of trading on huge spreads before decimalization, when a broker could rip both counter parties off and it was just accepted!
As for Mom and Pop: they need to pick up a copy of the Economist every now and then. I think the only thing that’s really happened here is the realization that the Stock / Bond / Real Estate markets are not guaranteed one way rides to easy street…the only way that works is if someone is printing money 24/7 (see TARP and the years that followed). Today’s market is propped up by that alone.
The situation in Europe is a lot worse than most Americans realize, and as hard as it might be to believe, the breakup of the EU and even military conflict between established EU powers (e.g. Germany and France) are not outside the realm of possibilities.
I’m all cash, by the way. At least until the next election. I took lumps in 2008 ,and it isn’t going to happen again.
FYI bigger spreads provided more liquidity to second tier stocks , computerized trading has exacerbated the “elephants running around the bath tub effect “
You are talking about two distinct phenomena.
Computerized trading simply facilitates efficient trade matching across broader markets. I don’t need to go through five middlemen to get the IBM specialist on the floor anymore.
Your “elephants” are the quants, who are a by product of the digital market. They don’t add much value, since most of them are just trying to front run the trade book. And when they fuck up, they do it spectacularly, as Knight Trading learned a couple years ago.
If NASDAQ and Euronext simply limited the number of cancel / replace orders any ID was able to place in a day, high speed arbs would go away. But then the exchanges wouldn’t get to bill for all that colo space, so here we are.
So thanks for showing us how stupid you are.
I put more money in in 2008 and its more than doubled since then.
Uh, in 2008 I took a big hit.
Since then, I’ve also doubled my money. Who hasn’t? They’ve been printing it nonstop.
My point, which I will elaborate for those who are slightly lacking in reading comprehension skills, is that I smell a correction coming, so I converted to cash a couple weeks ago. I would rather sit on cash for a bit, then sow it back in once the market’s done the inevitable.
Understand now, stupid?
You leave no doubt how stupid you are.
You missed the recent correction so let your cash continue to lose its value.
I added to my holdings as I always due on the ‘dips’ and have done extremely well in the past 30 days.
Get it now moron?
You are so full of shit.
If in fact you ‘smelled a correction’ , stepping up to the plate and placing bets as a ‘short’ would be the thing to do.
Apparently you’re just another internet bs artist.
And we all can smell your BS.
Shorts are dopes, because timing matters. I can watch the market with my money in the bank.
I play the long game (as in long duration, not long securities). My house in Ridgewood is paid for, and have enough cash to survive years if I need to.
I am in no hurry. You want to day trade-indices, be my guest. If I had the time and guts for it, I would. In the meantime sit back, relax, and bask in your superiority. Hope you don’t get caught holding the bag. And since you were the first person to start using hostile language, I’ll end it by telling you to fuck right off.
You are one rude scumbag.
Let me guess, another transplant from NYC?
You are one rude scumbag.
Let me guess, another transplant from NYC?
I’m not the guy who started insulting people for no reason. Read all the comments. I’m #2 and #4. #5 came in and called me stupid, then doubled down when I corrected him. He is a Real Big Shot: made a couple points on a Dow rebound over the last couple weeks!
I’ve been in the financial industry for over a decade, and my father before me has been in the market since the 70’s. And that prick is going to call me stupid, because I have a funny feeling about an all time high DOW going into an election cycle, with growth slowing in Asia and the EU fighting over fiscal policy? Something seems off, though the superficial bellwethers (low oil, interest rates, unemployment) appear sound.
Again, thinking that makes me stupid? If so, then I know an awful lot of similarly stupid people in the investment community.
I stand by my response. Sorry if my language offends your high-born Ridgewood sensibilities.
I stand by my comment that anyone that is in all cash since 2008 is stupid and missed out on huge gains.
And someone with a whopping 10 years in the financial industry states “Oh I long for the days of trading on huge spreads before decimalization, when a broker could rip both counter parties off and it was just accepted! “. Hence the reason Mom and pop no longer deal with the crooks who give all brokers a bad name.
Unfortunately the crude and the rude from NYC have infiltrated the Village where polite people used to agree to disagree and left it at that in a civil manner.