SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 & THE FINANCIAL COLLAPSE

I realize that there are tens of thousands of people whose lives have been changed to various degrees: loss of a father or mother or brother, etc. It is not only the pain at a missed relative or friend, it can mean selling the house, maybe not going to college, all sorts of things. And it did change our nation in that we have been at war ever since in Afghanistan and Iraq (the big two), but Yemen and other places too in different degrees. In addition to the thousands of Americans and foreigners who died in 9/11 or suffered life changing injuries, there are more thousands who have died or suffered life changing injuries in our subsequent wars in lands far away.

But in my case, and that of millions of others, 9/11 didn't change our lives at all, as nearly as I can tell. I had already been retired for 6 years. It is true that the tech and biotech bubbles burst affected our investing style to a significant extent, and we incurred significant financial loss. I had never gotten involved in corporate bonds before or preferred stocks. But I do not see how these are related to 9/11. The housing boom affected our life in that we sold our home and moved to a lower cost state with some tax advantages just before the housing crash that has been with us since. The low interest rates in effect since the burst of the housing bubble certainly have consumed a lot of time trying to find something relatively safe that has a decent yield. Can we sell our current home and move to a retirement center? I don't know.

If I had to pick something that affected my life in this century, it would be the collapse of our financial industry due to deregulation and lack of regulation of the financial industry by the Bush Administration.* All those weird derivatives and synthetic derivatives left unchecked. It ruined our economy for the rest of my life and maybe forever. Places that have heavy regulation of their financial industry have done rather well such as Texas (a surprise) and Canada. You can deregulate industries like trucking and maybe the airlines. There will be pain, but the entire economy is not at hazard, and, maybe after some years, we come out ahead. The financial industry is different. They can't be left unchecked. As much as 9/11 may have affected America, it is the collapse of the financial industry that has most affected America. For example, Federal revenues are at a 60year low as a percent of GDP.

Where was I when the economy collapsed? I don't know. Perhaps September 15, 2008 was the date. That was when Lehman Brothers declared Chapter 11.

* President Clinton helped by signing repeal of the Glass-Steagal Act.