farmdoc's blog post number 72

Ho-hum. Another day, another sharemarket fall. It’s surreal to work all day then learn that the share portfolio in Sweetheart Vivienne’s and my superannuation fund has fallen in value by several times what I earned that day. Such is the joy of being a shareholder in 2008. I think shareholders are bunnies, or even Mugginses; and the Howard government’s mums-and-dads shareholder push was a con to lock citizens into something unfathomable. I feel at the mercy of none-too-bright professional traders whose motives and aspirations are discordant with mine. And I believe the sharemarket is so poorly regulated that insider trading is rife though undetected or ignored by the authorities. It must be rife when greedy and unethical executives own massive holdings in the companies whose board decisions they mostly preordain. But fear not, the so-called experts bleat, bourses are models of market rationality, and downturns are cyclical and usually followed by sharp and major recoveries. Perhaps, but the current downturn – aka bear market, or correction – is accompanied by a high and continuing oil price rise. Are we witnessing a monumental shift in geopolitical power away from countries including the USA, to oil producing countries including, perish the thought, Iran? If so then the USA deserves it, because subprime lending signifies greed and rank stupidity. But I could be wrong; I am only a shareholder; ho hum.