<I'm not selling a single share Monday for one simple reason: IMO, to sell is unAmerican, unpatriotic and weak. We need to focus on the bigger picture. For those who think that money is the bigger picture, well, you lead more privileged lives than the rest of us. I'm holding every share of every company I own for the foreseeable future. I'll even buy more. Why? To make a point to the world's terrorists in my own silly way: You can't scare Americans, so don't even bother trying. What's the worse that happens? I lose all my money? So what?>
Roadkill, I've seen a few people talk about 'unAmerican' recently. The most American thing to do is to think for yourself and protect your interests [which should include respecting other people and therefore ethical and moral standards]. Many people in SI are unAmerican. Me for instance. That's because we are citizens of countries which are not the USA. But I'm not selling when the markets open either, even though I'm unAmerican. That's because I consider my investments to be undervalued.
If you think the markets will drop and you can sell your shares before they do, you should sell your shares and use the money to achieve your aims.
Here is why you should not sell. The World Trade Center destruction was just a blip in the big picture.
It really was trivial. Television sets don't create reality. Neither do movies. The fact that the reality had an eerie parallel to moviedom seems to have made the event more important than it really is. TV showed a most spectacular event. But it was basically a dozen guys with pocket knives who struck it lucky - moron guys [nasty, alcohol-drinking Jihad Moslems - I'm not sure than they are true heroes to a lot of Jihad Moslems since at least one of them drank booze]
USA annual roadkill and AIDS deaths generally get youngish people [such as those who inhabited the twin towers] at a greater rate. The twin towers deaths were trivial in the annual death rate of USA citizens and not even a blip out of the world's 5 or 6 billion people.
The economic impact of 5000 dead people is trivial for the world's economic system and the USA's too. The value of the buildings is an insignificant part of the USA's real estate value. Maybe the land can be rebuilt into something even better [those buildings were quarter of a century old and probably could have done with some updating].
The Pentagon damage is trivial too.
Keep in mind that I'm talking about the economic effects on 6 billion other people, not the end of the world which thousands of people experienced. I'm looking at it from the perspective of over 5 billion survivors.
Sure, there will be some specific revaluations but those have already taken place in everyone's mind - insurance payouts, airline profit drops. You won't be able to sell shares in those companies ahead of the market. But other companies, such as CDMA suppliers will actually do very well. Everyone in the USA will be buying cellphones flat out having seen how useful they are when the chips are down.
5000 people out of 300 million people [Canada plus USA just to make a round number] is only 1 in 60,000. They are hard to find statistically. It is just the focus and vastly dramatic scenes which make the event seem so important. Today, somebody will have died in a car crash in the USA. Their death is just as important to them and their families as the deaths in the World Trade Center fire and collapse. How many car crash deaths are there per year in the USA?
More important than the economic effects will be the political effects. There will almost certainly be some serious international improvements as USA citizens realize that there are no sidelines and fortress America is a leaky fortress. We are all in one sandpit and we had better have some rules of play [such as no throwing sand, kicking over sandcastles, stealing toys, or hitting other children].
The original aims of the United Nations might finally be brought to fruition. Israel and Palestine will be sorted out. Afghanistan will be civilized whether the Taleban likes it or not. Iraq will get a new constitution. Kuwait might be amalgamated with Iraq. Saddam and Uday will need to get new jobs.
So, sell your shares if you think that's a good idea for your financial position. It wouldn't be unAmerican. It would be sensible.
I might buy them from you if you sell them cheaply enough. That's because I think the world will become a better place, just as it did after Pearl Harbour, Hiroshima and Nagasaki [a LOT more innocent civilians were killed than in New York] as a result of what will happen. Simplistic revenge won't be a good answer. Revenge can't be taken against the hijackers! I dare say Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden would almost welcome the attention and glory of fighting in their lust for power against the biggest foe who can't defeat them because if they die, they still win and go to Allah.
I suspect the broad coalition of Nato, China, Russia, India, Iran? Japan, New Zealand, Australia, will sort out a few problems in Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine and Iraq, making the world a better place for all. Hopefully they'll do a good job of it. I expect that Bin Laden will not become a prisoner [if only because he does a Hitler suicide escape].
The world is a great place and getting better and better, the odd disaster notwithstanding. The US is the leading nation in that process. Don't bet against it.
Mqurice |
