The Fall of 2011

Back in 2006 I was well into world politics and current events. I've been obsessed since childhood with the way that world events have unfolded over the last 100 years and the various prophecies that surround the times that we live in. There was one thing that I just couldn't wrap my head around during my NPR shows. The Economy. I wasn't sure what all the numbers were or why they were up or down on certain days. So, I decided to figure it out. I began to listen to Marketplace on NPR everyday until I began to understand what Kai Ryssdal was talking about. Since I was listening to the news everyday I learned that Kraft Foods had bought itself out from Phillip Morris and saw the potential for investors to put money into it. That was the first piece of stock I ever bought. It was fun to follow its rise and fall over the next year and listen to world events shape how the stock market worked. When the housing market went south in 2008 I had already sold my Kraft stock (which had done pretty sweet for the little time that I had it) because I was hitting on hard times. However, with all the knowledge I had gleaned over those years I was well aware of what was happening and fascinated by its effect.
Here we are now, three years into this madness. We haven't moved forward in any direction really since the situation began and last week's credit downgrade by S&P has had a devastating effect on the market today. What sucks about this time is now Amber and I had invested a little bit into some stock that looked good a year ago. I was lucky enough to sell the two that had pretty much doubled in that year, but I decided to hold on to the rest because they were long term investments. We don't plan on selling them for at least ten years, but its still very disconcerting to watch your money tick away day by day at such an alarmingly fast rate. Luckily for us its only a couple hundred dollars we are dealing with. I couldn't imagine the stress that real investors are feeling right now.
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