My friend Michael works in the advertising business in New York, and he’s also an investor who reads The Kelly Letter and other money material. He’s traveled a lot, lived in Japan for a while, and is generally a worldly sort comfortable in a room filled with people of any type.
He worked for famed advertising company Saatchi & Saatchi a while back, and recalled earlier this week with a “growing ominous feeling” a presentation he heard there in 2008, just before the market crash:
Saatchi had hired a couple of futurists to talk about trends. They do all their own research, don’t use the media or the government. They told us the financial world would melt down and it would start with subprime. They told us stocks would follow suit. They told us a lot of things that seemed so outrageous when the Dow was at 13k that most of us just emerged from their presentation a little shaken but took no action.
They were dead right.
Their final conclusion was about the new America, the new normal, if you will. They said that the things we take for granted now, like a five-day work week, two weeks of vacation, pensions, etc. will be gone. Gone. They said the new normal will include working several jobs just to survive, including weekends, and no paid vacations.
I hope they are wrong about that, but as the financial collapse seems to be more and more inevitable, they might be right.
That view is appearing in more places than you’d think. Pimco Chief Executive Officer Mohamed El-Erian, said the global economy is entering a period of fundamental transformation he calls the “new normal,” and he explained to Bloomberg yesterday that mounting deficits and tighter financial regulation will dampen growth in the US and the euro zone for the next three to five years. He said investors will be faced with anemic returns and they’ll seek alternatives.
The need to protect your personal finances from the ravages brought on by government, banks, and big business has never been higher.
Learn more about that.
2 Comments
Thank you for this honest comment, Zack. I’m going to write an article about it and run it Saturday.
I’ve been a fan of your books & website for years & have also subscribed to your letter. I’m a huge fan of your writing because I think you’re dead on about the coming financial meltdown(s). However, it is hard not to get depressed when I’m looking for solutions to become wealthy (or at least financially secure). You see, I am pretty sure that most of your friends & readers have more money & more experience than I do. I’m 28 yrs old & have done little more than customer service work for credit cards. I am trying to live my life financially UN-stupid. I make less than 30k/yr and trying to pay for a house and student loans. I would love to invest more, but its difficult to scrape together enough so that commissions don’t eat into it. I would love to get a job making more money, but I am now competing with people 5, 10, 20 years older than me with that much more experience to get the job(s) that I am applying for. It is seemingly impossible to convince an employer to hire me when there is someone who has 10 more yrs experience than me who is applying for the same job & will accept the same pay as me because the job market is so tight. Maybe its better I keep my head down until enough other people trip on whats in front of them because their looking up, and then I can step over and maybe not be as wealthy but at least not be broke.