Maybe the Arab investors were just a tad smarter than we were. Way back in January of 2000, I watched a segment on CNBC in which they were interviewing a guy named Jerry Favors. He told them he had all of his investments in cash and was advising his clients to do the same. I remember telling my wife that I thought the tech stocks, especially the internet stuff and the fiberoptic giants were overvalued. I told her that if we had any sense, we would sell everything and put it all into CDs. We didn't, but I did drop some of my high fliers and cut back on others, so the crash has not hurt me quite as badly as it could have. Still, I wish I had listened to Jerry Favors. I would be much better off than I am today (40% better off).
Maybe the arabs just didn't buy into that new paradigm crapola, where earnings didn't matter anymore, and companies financed aquisitions with stock in companies that had no book value. Maybe they didn't buy Yahoo at $220/ share, or Qualcom at $800 before the split. Maybe they didn't think JDSU was worth more than $100/share. Maybe what brought the market crashing down was excess optimism, not some devious plot to bring AMerica to its knees. What was Alan Greenspan's catch phrase? Irrational exhuberance? How much more irrational could we have been?
Instead of blaming someone else for my losing money over the past three years, I am shouldering all of the blame myself. I got greedy, and just didn't know when to quit. Kenny Rogers song, The Gambler, says it best.
You got to know when to hold,
Know when to fold up.
Know when to walk away,
Know when to run.
You never count your cards,
When you're sittin' at the table.
They'll be time enough for countin',
When the dealin's done.
trkyhntr
No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.
--Mark Twain (1866)
AI
