May 05 2008
Emerging Markets: Living Well is the Best Revenge
“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
That outburst is enshrined in movie history. It’s from the 1976 satire “Network,” which went on to win four Academy Awards.
The now-famous line gave fire to a diatribe by a news anchor named Howard Beale with declining ratings. Played by the great Peter Finch, he urges Americans to yell it out their windows during a dazzling lightning storm.
Beale rants “Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV’s while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
Beale rallies America against the mediocrity and injustice that threatens his livelihood. He shouts to his audience “You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being, Goddamnit! My life has value. So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”
And I agree wholeheartedly. Because I’m mad as hell. And I’m not taking it more. And neither should you.
The U.S. economy is a sham. Nixon took us off the gold standard so that the dollar was based on a promise to pay. Ha, that’s a joke — since our economy is in debt to the Chinese and others to the tune of $9.3 trillion. (So in addition to your own money woes, your share of that debt is $30,864.39.)
Greenspan was a crack dealer who got us hooked on cheap money and then ran off to shore up his legacy just before the whole mess collapsed down on him. And Bernanke?
With the bailout of Bear Stearns we see with our own two eyes what our hearts have been telling us all along: that Bernanke is nothing but a Wall Street shill.
Everywhere we turn here in America, you see proof that the game is rigged against us.
Well, my friends, its time to seize the day — “Carpe diem” — to make the most of current opportunities because time is fleeting.
We need to put our cash in markets that are making people rich instead of investing in Uncle Sam, who is on life support.
I have to tell you, I am a raging bull about the emerging markets. Are they perfect? No. Are they risky? Yes. But guess what? The U.S. economy is risky. The S&P 500 is down 7.9% for the past 52 weeks as of this missive…
OK, let’s cut the S&P 500 some slack and turn back the clock over the last five years. Sure the S&P 500 delivered 27% total gains. If you had invested $50,000 in the S&P 500 back in 2003, you could be sitting on about $63,500.
Now check out these 5-year numbers…
Egypt up 1,346%
Ukraine up 1,230%
Peru up 959%
Colombia up 838%
Russia up 518%
China up 439%
Argentina up 333%
India up 319%
Czech Republic up 298%
Mexico up 297%
Imagine what would’ve happened if you put that same $50,000 into Peru instead of the S&P 500. You could be sitting on nearly $8 million.
Emerging markets are the place for us to be.
Remember: “Living well is the best revenge.”
Go for it!
–Irwin Greenstein
Thanks for the update. The mess on wall street shows that if you believe and invest with the “herd” you get slaughtered with them as well. The daily noise from the so called experts of how to (as you put it) take the present economy off life support, is falling on deaf ears. Today’s commentary speaks of the “money” on the sidelines, and how to get it into the market. How else can you get unsuspecting people into a rigged game, and continue to keep your job? Lie about the potential and what everyone else in the know are doing.