When the editor of this august (or should that be December?) journal called to say that Wesley was indisposed this month – poor, fragile Wes must have fallen victim to a dodgy latte in his recently-adopted hometown of Melbourne – he left simple instructions.
“Just tell us about something interesting that’s happened recently,” he said. At least that narrowed it down.
When we look back in 10 years’ time at events that shaped recent history, I wonder what will be uppermost in our minds. Will it be the global financial crisis (which has already been handily abbreviated to GFC), or the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America?
As we sit here today, it’s difficult to know which will shape our lives more powerfully over the coming decade. I suspect and hope it will be Obama; poor investment markets tend to recede into the mists of time (eventually), and even bad years eventually look like short-term blights on a long-term horizon. I suspect a great president has the potential to influence our lives a lot more than that.
Even so, I had to scratch my head and consult Wikipedia to be reminded of who was president when global equity markets tanked in 1987. It was Ronald Reagan, of course. I have to say I remember the ’87 crash more vividly than I remember Ron – in fact, I remember Ron mainly from the caricature of him in that Frankie Goes To Hollywood video.
Behavioural psychologists tell us that we feel the pain of a loss twice as acutely as we savour the pleasure of a gain. That could explain why financial crises live longer in the memory than the elections of good presidents.
A lot of people look back now on the Reagan years as having been a lot better than they felt at the time – a bit like 80s music – and the financial events still resonate more than Reagan’s two terms.
Perhaps both of the more recent events will be viewed from a slightly different perspective in years to come – there’s a good chance that late 2008 and 2009 could come to be seen as having presented once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to help clients get set for serious long-term wealth creation.
It would be a shame, though, if the same period came to be remembered as the time when George W Bush vacated the White House, rather than when Obama was elected to occupy it.
I guess the way you view it depends on how you view the glass. To me, the glass is not half full OR half empty; it’s both.
Right now, though, the reality of Obama’s election has sunk in, and we’re once again turning our attention to the practical matter of how to fill the glass. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that there is never a good time to make rash promises about how rosy the future might be. It hardly ever pans out the way you expect.
I was reminded of this recently when I learned of the death of someone I knew. Not someone I knew all that well, but well enough that the news was a jolt. Naturally, I felt obliged to attend the funeral, which turned out to be a slightly odd affair but, at the same time, proved to be a timely reminder that life is short, and we must take our opportunities where we find them.
The invitation (is that the right word?) noted that one of the deceased’s last requests was that mourners make a small financial gesture by leaving a bank note – $50 was “suggested” – in the coffin, with which he was to be buried. If there’s a toll at the gates of Heaven now then the joint must be run by the same dolts as NSW.
During the service I did a quick head count: 45 people, not including myself. That’s $50 times 45, or $2250, plus my own donation.
I made sure I waited until last, and approached the coffin. I wrote out a cheque for $2300, placed it in the coffin, and pocketed the cash.
