Go-Go-90s: Introduction (1 of 3)

The purpose of this post is two-fold.

1. To give some background on my earlier blogging (or its predecessor: bulletin board life) on the subject of economy and financial markets; and
2. To lead you into a phenomenal video produced by PBS Frontline on this subject as a sequel to this post.

I have been educating myself about the inner workings of the economy and financial markets for the last 20 years. Though I must admit that all the knowledge I gained helped me foresee things better, in monitory terms did not help me much. If one wants to play the markets to make money, knowledge and foresight is not enough – you need to have and execute a sound money management plan.

Now that the disclosure is over with, I am going to introduce you to a vision of the future that is so in plain sight that people in all walks of life, from an ordinary person like me to a mid-level regulator at the Clinton White House could see.

In this first post, please allow me have a shameless plug to myself. Perhaps this is an unnecessary, ‘I told you so’ kind of post. Whatever it may come across as, I felt like telling this story. In my profile in the “contributors” page I mentioned about my participating on bulletin boards and blogs since 1995. Most of my contributions can be found on the bulletin board site: Silicon Investor. I first posted there with my original name and later changed the handle to Cynic2005. When the world is praising Greenspan, Rubin and the wonder years of US economy, I had the following to say on the thread I started: Greenspan, Rubin & Co – the Most Irresponsible Team Ever??

Clinton follies have an impact on the way we look at politicians in general. To say the least, it is no big deal as nobody really thinks highly of politicians to begin with, anyway.

But, on the other hand, the follies of the Feds will have profound impact on our lives and livelihood.

The worst thing current irresponsible acts (a la easy money) of the Feds will make the day to day lives of 100s of millions a living hell – possibly for a couple of decades.

Let the Presidential historians examine the last fibre of the semen stained dress. Let them worry about the useless issues like how future will look at Clinton presidency in general. Let the press focus and analyze in detail the bizzare approval ratings of the President. If you are more concerned about the way this administration in general, the Federal Reserve Board in particular, is handling the economy, perhaps by looking at the polls, this is the place for you. Let us hope that this thread will develop to be a Historian on Fed during the go-go years of the late 90’s.

I make no bones about where I stand on this issue. I think Greenspan is a disgrace to this economy. But, if you feel strongly otherwise, please post here. I will throw some points to ponder by the thread.

I said that on Jan 10, 1999 – more than 11 years ago. Not that I am prescient. I just paid attention to the news and had a healthy dose of skepticism in accepting the spin from the powers that be at any given time. A few things should be clear for you after reading the quotation above.

1. As some people who listened to my show for several months thought, I am not a Democrat. [Of course, I am not a Republican also.]
2. I despised Greenspan’s policies with a passion for a long time.

First digest the significance of above Time Magazine, featuring Rubin, Greenspan and Summers on the cover which more or less dates back to the time of my above post on Silicon Investor. More important matter in part 2 (which you should take the time to digest and worth spending 90 min of your time to digest.)