Empire

Unfortunately Christopher Lydon was right. He has explored the theme of empire – and it’s demise – for some time now, to the chagrin of many – “why you try’n to rock the boat, man.”

Turns out he wasn’t trying to rock it, he was just duly reporting on the gaping hole of gushing water he witnessed with his keen eye.

Our country will now pick a new captain, and the question is, will it be one who pushes on full-steam ahead, with the notion that our ship wields the brightest beacon and fiercest vessel…to the very end bye God? Or will it be the captain that acknowledges our leak, who changes course, even (dare I say) asks for help.

Listening to Mr. Bogle decry the speculators, I’m reminded again how much Wall Street has come to resemble Vegas minus the etiquette and the hair gel. The fact is any investor in Wall Street is a speculator/gambler and just like in Vegas some of these guys don’t know their limits (especially when they are playing with house money).

I’m serious here, my contention is that Vegas has come to terms with it’s excess and does not pretend to be something it’s not. I’ve recently been doing some video work at Putnam Investments (I needs the money too, man) and every time I walk into that huge building in the financial district I’m in awe at the monstrosity of bullshit.

We set up the camera as these fund managers in expensive suits spew high-falutin’ financial lingo at the camera. The more complicated they can make it sound the more likely the naïve investor will fork over their money to the “expert.”

One of my many jobs was taking bets for an offshore gambling operation in Jamaica. One of the first things I learned was that the more complicated the bet (i.e. teases, parlays, action reverse/bird cage) the better the odds were for the bookie.

So that’s why Mr. Bogle’s take on the ownership society hit home with me. In the words of that natural investor Thoreau, “Simplify, Simplify, Simplify.”

(Although his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson replied: “one ‘Simplify’ would have been sufficient.”)