Here Come the Money Helicopters!
$10 Trillion Goes to Money Heaven
We interrupt our series on what to do if you have no money to bring you an update on those who are losing it. (You can catch up on Parts I and II of that series here and here.)
What was the best place for your money so far in 2015? Cash! Compared to cash, almost everything is down. We are headed for the worst quarter for stocks since 2011, says the lead story in today’s Financial Times.
Global stock markets have lost $10 trillion of their value over the last three months. What? Where did all that paper wealth go? The old-timers say it went to “money heaven.”
One fine morning in money heaven….will it ever rain down again? Of course, no money has actually disappeared. Only make-believe values have. Image credit: Salvatore Vuono
We’re not so sure. But we stop. We stare. We look at it as we would at a corpse. What happened to its life force? Where did it go? Why is it no longer there? We have no answer. But looking at a stock market sell-off is like standing over an open coffin: We are in awe at the power of the gods to take as well as to give.
They ask no one’s permission. They follow their own playbook (which they never reveal to mortals). And they are as much a law unto themselves as the NSA. But what’s $10 trillion that never actually existed anyway? Easy come, easy go, right?
Well… yes… and no. It’s usually a pleasure to welcome a baby, but a funeral can be painful. And every one of those dollars – now headed for heaven or hell – will be missed by someone.
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