So I'm at the ATM today and I see a little placard whilst I'm waiting in line.
Over 1 Trillion in Deposits. Our strength is in our numbers.
I think to myself, "didn't I just see see where Citigroup was the recipient of a sh*ttonne of cash?"
I am irritated at this false posturing. There is no strength here. This irritates me like young rappers who are talking about how much bling they've got.
It irritates me because we are expected to not be aware of the fact that they are in ridiculous contracts where they are loaned money (a record contract is not usually out right you earned it money, its usually a loan with an interest rate that is worse than your defaulted credit card). So, I am not impressed when somebody starts spitting at me about how they shit be fly because of how big a loan they got.
The lessons will be learned. Eventually.
Par Example:
Rex Graduated from music school and took a job and an IT company. Eventually he was so brainwashed that he convinced his father to take part of his life savings and invest it in said IT company. Father, very proud of his "bright" son, agreed and they bought lots and lots of shares of stock on opening day in February of 2002. To me that day marks the start of the down turn that we are all facing today. It's a lesson that seems more and more real.
Our company's primary business was as an ISP at the time. That's Internet Service Provider for all you non-techies out there. We sold internet connections to big bussinesses and also did a fair bit of hosting. Hosting is basically where a company manages the computers that serve up your band's website. Only rumour was that we hosted all the porn. I don't really know. I digress.
Our stock opened up at $24 and all sorts of people told me that it should be worth $40/share. We had just spent a ton of cash building up our technology, and the boss and all of us were spending money like it was going out of style. Rex the 22 year old had a corporate expense account. I was a team leader for a callcenter. Not even the manager. Really?
We all got to work early 6:30 am. Central. We had contacted our stock brokers and placed pre-orders.
At 8 am Eastern the stock market opens up we all buy at 24. Within an hour its at 27.
Yes!
Buy more stock. I cannot describe to you exactly my thought process but I was very aware of how much in the hole our company was at the time. I was also aware of how much we wasted. Even though the most embarrasing wastefull events were yet to come.
4 hours later its at $23. Wait, what? "Don't sell," says everybody including the bosses.
"Believe in the company!"
4 days later it was $18.
6 Months later it was at $10.
2 years later... maybe 60 cents.
A few years later the stock combines 15-to-1. That is not split Ladies and Gents. There were 15 and now there is one. I had a lot of stocks. Now I have a 15 times less.
Last year, after combining the stock goes up to 40. So divide that by 15 its still not even $3/share Interms of what I paid for it.
Here we are now. What are the lessons that we can learn from this?
First, sometimes it is better to sell at $18
Second why is it that our parents get angry at us for being wasteful? It's because they made the same mistakes.
Third, why is it that we are so angry at the bankers for riding around in Limo's? Because 9 months ago we bought a second $2000 guitar/handbag/suit/trip on a credit card. Guilty. Our mailman knew it. She's dropping off the collection notices as I type. This entire meltdown has basically made sure that everyone else now knows it.
But what does that mean for Citigroup? Remember we were talking about Young rappers Fronting and ATM machine advertisements. I went looking to confirm that and thought I would share
who is now at the bread line: Who takes the cake? At 50 Billion, we have a winner. Citigroup.
You have just been caught frontin' son. Your strength certainly is in your numbers.
Another "nifty" blog in The Times today has put this downturn in comparison with other downturns since the 70s. The magic 8 Ball says, "
Outlook not good."
And yet methinks, "All this baddy bad out there. What do we need to do?"
Cheer up. Get your lashes. Say a few Hail Marys or meditate/whatever, and start being a little smarter about what you do and how you present yourself. You can probably make as much money yourself as you would make with the big record deal doing it yourself. You may not be as famous. But farmous is so over anyway. How about we try being good at something for a while?
I am trying. I wonder if I could be so good as to
forgive Chris Brown too?
Maybe. But sometimes it's better to let the Golden Cow be melted down. Somebody else can sell Wriggly's Gum, I assure you. The trick is to know when to solder the leg back on and when to smelt.