Checklist
Just read this article about the economy it was interesting.
The sale of antidepressants and antianxiety drugs is widespread. In New York their use became common after 9/11. It continued through and, I hypothesize, may have contributed to, the high-flying, wildly imprudent Wall Street of the ’00s. We look for reasons for the crash and there are many, but I wonder if Xanax, Zoloft and Klonopin, when taken by investment bankers, lessened what might have been normal, prudent anxiety, or helped confuse prudent anxiety with baseless, free-floating fear. Maybe Wall Street was high as a kite and didn’t notice. Maybe that would explain Bear Sterns, and Merrill, and Citi.
I’m not so sure about that. Hollywood has always glorified the financial sector’s decadent lifestyle. You know the old saying…Sex, drugs, and Balance Sheets.
Here’s what made me sit up and notice:
Five weeks ago, when I asked a Wall Street titan what one should do to be safe in the future, he took me aback with the concreteness of his advice, and its bottom-line nature. Everyone should try to own a house, he said, no matter how big or small, but it has to have some land, on which you should learn how to grow things. He also recommended gold coins, such as American Eagles. I went to the U.S. Mint website the next day, but there was a six-week wait due to high demand.
Well we’re on track with that advice. We’re goin’ “Old MacDonald”. We’ve ordered some chickens, and we’ll be tilling up some of our backyard this weekend (weather permitting).
The thing is…why are we taking a Wall Street titan’s advice? Weren’t they part of the reason this happened?
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Hooray for chickens! However, I don’t think I would put much stock in any of Peggy Noonan’s advice (”I asked a Wall Street titan,” really? If “a Wall Street titan” did say that to her in exactly that context, I suspect he might have been messing with her. Not that living off your own land is not a good idea!) especially since she clearly is willing to spout whatever comes into her head without researching it, given the wild inaccuracy of her speculation about antidepressant and antianxiety meds. She clearly has no idea how they work.