Sheila Bair describes the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath as she saw it during her time as chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. She explains why the U.S. financial system is still at risk and tougher regulatory reform is needed. Here is a direct link.
On a personal note, I can still recall my first trip to New York, it was the day I realized that there was no bear statue on Wall Street and the day I confirmed the truth about the financial world.
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“I realized that there was no bear statue on Wall Street”
An important observation that is right up there with “Where are the customers’ yachts?”
And there is also no statue for gold, king of monies. How is that for a bull by the horns?
Gold is sure interesting these days of late. I know the management here almost constantly disses it, and maybe rightly so….but they could be very seriously wrong. I know its price is the problem, but you should own some.
Its going to become almost impossible to get in the next few years. You might call it ‘obtainium’.
I never thought about the absence of a bear on Wall Street before. Although, it makes sense. The threat of declining asset prices would make it much harder to sell pre-packaged financial products and advice. Perma-bulls be damned!
Why would you expect to see a bear on Wall St.? Does an airplane manufacturer have a crashed plane in it’s foyer? Bizarre!!
It is not the bull itself that is symbolic, it is what it naturally deposits every day.
That’s a good point (sort of). People who understand how the stock market works (and I’m not saying you don’t) know that because of the way our system works, bear markets are natural and healthy events that help clear away mal-investment and excess. Also, you can make a lot of money in a bear market too. However, all things considered, you’re right. In the minds of most investors “bull”=”good”; “bear”=”bad”.
However, if we as a society understood that constant, unchecked growth, in anything, is not a good thing (e.g. cells) we might rethink how we look at bear markets. Expansion and contraction are fundamental aspects of nature; you can’t have one without the other for too long, or the end result is catastrophe.
False analogy much, Michael?