Congratulations to “darrell…Chesapeake” on a 15 percent profit in 30 minutes. And thank you for documenting EMR’s point. You make all those who say the stock market is not a gambling venue look like duffuses.
James Atticus Bowden says one could made 7 percent (compounded?) from the stock market over the period 1790 to 2008. Well sure, if you want to take the short term view :>)
The James Atticus Bowden’s time frame is just about the 1800 to 2000 period EMR uses to bracket the Agrarian to Urban Fundamental Transformation. A 7 percent return is to be expected given the continent of nonrenewable resources that have been consumed. Did someone say there is a limit to nonrenewable resources? Can you say “Punctuated Equilibrium?”
Lets take a shorter period, say since 1973 when every citizen should have know that Fundamental Transformation from Mass OverConsumption to sustainability was imperative.
The same or perhaps even greater “growth” of the stock market might be calculated but that demonstrates why data that is not aggregated intelligently is more misleading than no data. This reality concerning data is critical to achieving an understanding of human settlement patterns but it is also important in this context.
Some stocks (or baskets of stocks) did a lot better than 7 percent compounded after inflation since 1973. These are the ones that brokers like to cite.
Then there are stocks (or baskets of stocks) that did a lot worse. One never hears about them.
One could have chosen what seemed like a great basket of stocks in 1972 and now find that none of them even exist now.
An “average” is fine but the investor must trade to keep the basket fresh and there in lies the gamble.
Who does one rely on for advice? A broker who makes profit every time you trade? Just hope she does not recommend Centennial Illinois, Lincoln S&L, Enron, WorldCom, Fannie or Freddie, AIG, …
You might invest in risk-minimizing mutual funds or other vehicles. Who do you rely on to rate these financial “products”? How about Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s or Fitch? See today’s coverage of yesterdays hearing on The Hill.
A favorite investing joke is about a car load of rotten sardines. The punch line is “What difference does it make if those sardines are rotten? They are not for eating, they are for buying and selling.”
Then there is Blogger Bob who champions that bellwether of functional settlement patterns, the pregnant-mother-of-two:
“A technologically driven society is more productive, and therefore costs are reduced.”
The crown prince of non sequiturs speaks.
The issue in not “productivity” it is consumption vs. capacity of a closed system. It is ecological footprint, it is the trajectory of consumption. By current measures of “productivity” driving a bus load of pregnant-mothers-of-two into a moving train adds to the GDP.
(More on pregnant-mothers-of-two soon.)
There needs to be an alternative to the negative trajectory of Business-As-Usual. How about Regional investing?
Garmeen Bank / mini-investing has won a Nobel prize. Why not Household investing, friend investing, Cluster investing, Neighborhood investing, Community investing, Regional investing – How about a diversified portfolio being an array of Regional investments in things that will make your life better.
Global speculation drives Supercapitalism.
Citizens should have the ability to investment in goods and services that they understand and the location of which creates functional and sustainable settlement patterns. A lot smarter than sardines for buying and selling.
Here is a specific: A Regional network of Community Enterprises that recycle / rebuild small batteries. As the Global supply chain atrophies one of the first things to come into short supply might be small batteries. The ones without which, hearing aids, hand held instruments, cameras, cell phones, alarm systems and millions of other devices will be useless, toxic junk.
“Rechargeable” is fine but rechargeables wear out and eventually do not hold a charge. An investment is a Regional system to redesign batteries so they can be rebuild and traded for spent ones might be a winner. There are thousands of battery sizes besides AAA, AA, A, C and D but one might start with “standard” sizes first. Right now all the big money is going to improve big batteries to propel Large, Private Vehicles. How do you market these new batteries? Well to the investors and their Households.
Billions of small batteries end up in the land fill every year. Well meaning “environmental services” try to keep car batteries out of the land fills but many of them still go there. A bigger problem is the small batteries.
In a primitive lab it is possible build a big 12 volt battery. Or get a jump start and use the generator. Try that with you cell phone. Standardize and redesign of batteries so they can be renewed. Not in China, but right in your Region.
Bill “Green Dean” McDonough could think of a thousand other “investments” but that will do to illustrate the concept of Regional investment.
EMR
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