Thursday, May 24, 2012

Sucker-berg: A Fool’s Game


All the fools who got in on the Facebook IPO got a quick lesson. The stock will continue to fall--the insiders have already cashed out their gains.

The stock market is a sucker’s game. Yes, you can make some money with some wise investing, but it’s the foolish sucker who thinks he can strike it rich, especially on an IPO. The insiders have it wired, and ordinary schlubs don’t have a chance.

Continually devaluing dollar forces the rubes into the stock market

Fellow Right Blogistanis who’ve known me for awhile know I am not a conspiracy theorist. But if I were, I would see a conspiracy to drive stupid money into the stock market so that the sharpies can fleece the rubes. We have Wall Street Banksters and international financiers running the Fed and the Treasury during both dem and repub administrations, and inflation climbs ever upward, sometimes quickly, usually slowly, but ever upward, eroding our savings and our buying power. You haven’t been able to make any money for years by simply putting it in the bank, with inflation overcoming meager interest rates.  This drives ordinary people into the stock market, a rigged game they don’t understand.

Government helps cover up the scam by designing the inflation measurement so that those most important items to our well-being, like food and energy, are not included in the measure.

What cost you only a dollar in 1945 would today cost you anywhere from $12 to $67 depending on the measurement used to gauge the debasement of our currency.

Inflationary monetary policy literally steals money from our pockets, while eroding our autonomy and ability to financially support ourselves. Thanks to slow currency debasement and the diminished wealth and purchasing power it brings us, we are chickens to be plucked at the financial markets. As an added bonus to the big government types, thanks to our ever-shrinking dollar, most of us end up beholden to Big Daddy Government in our old age, many even sooner.

We are all Julias now.

20 comments:

Ducky's here said...

Kapital's finest hour, wasn't it.

And no one goes to jail. The system works.

I talked someone out of buying and he owes me a beer.

Ducky's here said...

Facebook's ticker symbol should be switched to FK (Falling Knife).

IPO = I'm Pissed Off.

Anonymous said...

Ironically, If Romney is elected and is able by reducing corporate taxes and over regulation to get the economy growing between 3% and 4%, inflation is going to go wild. The reason is that there is about $2 trillion in funny money from QE 1 and QE 2 that is sitting in excess reserve account at the Fed that are just waiting for a reason to start circulating through the real economy.

Bunkerville said...

Jim makes an excellent point. The next round will be hyper-inflation.

Ducky's here said...

Forget it, Silver. Cut to the chase.

What are you grilling for the holiday?

I'm actually going to do some myself. Picked up some veggie burgers from Whole Foods (they're pretty good) and though I'd try grilling them with a little light mustard sauce.
Serve with a nice mix of grilled veggies, onion, pepper, carrots ... then we get to the excuse for the whole thing.

The packie had Bengali Tiger India Pale Ale in stock. Nectar of the gods.

Silverfiddle said...

Baby back ribs with mojo rub and mango habanero sauce, smoked with an apple/cherry wood mix.

Washed down with Breckenridge Agave Wheat and Avalanche, maybe a shot or two of Hornitos Reposado tequila.

Jersey McJones said...

Thank you, Silver, for presenting the case for Social Security.

JMJ

Silverfiddle said...

Actually it is an indictment, but thank you for showing us how screwball progressive thinking.

You want us all to be Julias, beholden to the government. Slavery anyone?

Why not just confiscate everything and dole it all back out based on need?

The Debonair Dudes World said...

I think that it's too early to tell. I reserve my opinion, I've seen too many IPO's that acted this way and turned out to be extremely successful..

Ducky's here said...

For debonair's next trick he will explain Facebooks growth opportunities (Hint: Limited).

Low growth, no dividend - your kind of stock debonair?

Teresa said...

Facebook is so over-hyped and so was the IPO. Apparently some insiders got the scoop about Facebook IPO's negative outlook.

Trekkie4Ever said...

I may be on Facebook but I wouldn't invest in it.

To be honest I have never done any kind of investments, I have no idea what I would be doing.

Silverfiddle said...

Leticia: If you have no idea what you are doing, then you are wise to keep your money out of there.

The smartest way to do it is to pick a trusted mutual fund, no load, but even then you need to know something, because there are thousands of them.

Anonymous said...

I've been investing the stocks, binds and real estate for nearly forty years. I am not especially clever at investment, but I am smart enough to know that if something looks too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.

People who imagine they can get rich quick and lunge for the sucker paper deserve whatever punishment they get.

Even though I have suffered losses in NAV just like everyone else [mostly because of reversals in real estate!], since the assholes have been put in charge, I have no complaints about my lot in life.

Ambition to become prosperous and independent -- even wealthy -- is not greed. The uncontrolled desire to get more and more just for the sake of getting it, whether you have any real use for it or not is.

Art any rate, if the stock market fails, America is finished, and we may all as well slit our throats. I have faith in the market. It made my family rich -- even though they lived through the Great Depression in their youth -- and it has kept me comfortable and able to be generous and helpful to others for many years.

In a very real sense the market IS America. I wouldn't talk it down for anything. At the same time one must learn to be judicious, prudent, patient and thrifty -- something at which we Americans are not very good.

~ FreeThinke

Ducky's here said...

Good advice Silver.

Leticia might do well with a no load index fund, a no load bond fund and some conservative stocks like utilities or telcoms.

Silverfiddle said...

Thanks Ducky:

You and FreeThinke are in the market and doing well because neither of you are a fool or ignorant of the market's ways.

FT gives some good advice. If you're a schlub on the outside, you might as well as be waiting for lighting to strike...

Jersey McJones said...

Silver, again, thank you for pointing out the value of a social safety net.

JMJ

Anonymous said...

A safety net is one of the hallmarks of an enlightened society, but -- as Rush Limbaugh was famous for saying -- too many people have been using the safety net as a HAMMOCK, which is surely the mark of a decadent, probably moribund society.

~ FreeThinke

Silverfiddle said...

@ Jersey: Silver, again, thank you for pointing out the value of a social safety net.

Which government robs us to pay for. You are so stupid that government is bribing you with your own money.

MathewK said...

I was really surprised that it opened at $38 or thereabouts, why would anyone part with their cash for something that's simply unproven. Plenty of fools out there I guess.