Tuesday, September 16, 2008

What to do? What to do?

Twenty minutes to write a blog.

Ready. Set. Go.

OK. Is anyone else out there getting the teensiest bit nervous about the market? Don't most people have their 401K or dot.com money or savings invested in the market? Does anyone else have nagging, worrying thoughts about another Great Depression when you hear the economic news these days?

I am probably paranoid. It's my libertarian-ness. Ultimately, I'm not sure if I have faith in the US economy because of the massive amounts of debt our govt. owes. Taxes will have to be raised sooner or later (which is bad for the economy).

Oh, how I wish I bought gold when it was at $375/oz. It's at $800 now. Actually, the price of gold hasn't changed at all. The value of the dollar has decrease that much. Gold is unchanging. It doesn't lose it's value. Oh why didn't I listen to my crazy libertarian voice back then?

No. I had to listen to people who were "experienced" in the market who said that gold wasn't a good long term investment. Urg.

So, if we are really brave, and have faith that the market will ultimately rebound, this is a buying opportunity. YIKES! Scary monsters.

But that is what I'm thinking about. To buy or not to buy.

Hmmm.... that mattress is looking pretty good right now.

3 comments:

Colleen - Mommy Always Wins said...

Yeah, I'm nervous about the market, but have faith it'll rebound. Eventually. It'll just take some time! (I just don't look at my 401k statement...)

Mike said...

Wouldn't your Libertarian voice tell you to have faith in capitalism? Gold, stocks, whatever. It's all just atoms, figurative and literal, that humans have assigned prices to based on scarcity, utility, future potential, whatever. Why is gold more libertarian than stocks? Gold traders are somehow more anti government than bonds traders or equities ones?

Sue said...

Colleen, I sure hope you are right!

Mike: I do have faith in the free market - but we don't really have a completely free market. The govt. has been regulating and controlling many parts of the market for decades.

You are right about humans arbitrarily assigning value to gold.

A gold standard leads to a more stable economy because it makes it impossible for governments to print up as much money as they need for whatever cause or war is going on (causing infaltion: the secret tax). While some new gold can be mined and added to the sum total of gold, basically, governments would need to raise taxes or cut spending to fund programs.