I have been somewhat nervous about the economy. I feel that if the Iraq war does not end soon, or that the US attacks Iran, the economy may get very bad.
I also have watched some conspiracy stuff on how the federal reserve is actually controlled by the Rothschild family and how Milton Friedman had said that the Federal Reserve caused the great depression and could have prevented it. This seems somewhat chocking, but I have seen a video of Friedman saying that, and although I may not agree with all of his economic ideas, I think there may be something to that assertion of his and others. Bernanke had apparently agreed with what Friedman had said and acted as if it was all a mistake and part of a learning process, though in reality it seems like the Fed in the end is going to protect certain Wall street entities and not the middle class type investor.
The guy at Fidelity Investments discouraged me from moving my IRA into FDIC CD's. He recommended a managed portfolio type account that he says has become popular, maybe it was PAS or something. I am considering putting a large chunk in that to see how it does. He also said that investments are covered with SIPC, but I see that that is a private insurance. With FDIC, I guess the govt can print money if it had to, though that would devalue what you get anyway. He also gave the usual argument that moving to CD's you will get low yields and all, but I think if I hear much more bad economic news I may be prepared to move into CD's, I am somewhat conflicted on this and am afraid that my gut feeling of moving alot of my assets into CD's may be the thing to do, but the recommendation not to leaves me a bit uncertain of what I should do.
He also had said that the S&L crisis in the 80's caused alot of people to think it was the end of the world. I have heard stuff like that on the radio, one guy claiming that the 70's was worst than the depression, but that seems wrong because the depression was a greater hardship for the common man. It seems like economists measure the economy based on how a large corporation would view things and not the average person trying to live a life free from stress and hardships. That leaves me feeling frustrated with many economists, and if you listen to The Electric Politics podcast on the internet, they have an episode that argues that economics has become some high ended mathematical modeling approach that is actually disconnected from the real world to a large extent.
-------------------------------------- Misc.invest.financial-plan is a moderated newsgroup where Moderators strive to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting guidelines include a request for brevity and another for trimming posts to which we respond. For all of the other tips and suggestions, see "FROM THE MODERATORS: Posting to misc.invest.financial-plan", a weekly post now on the Newsgroup.