Fantastic Four as your 401(k) | Hero Complex | Los Angeles Times
Fantastic Four as your 401(k) | Hero Complex | Los Angeles Times
Fantastic Four as your 401(k)
02:20 PM PT, Oct 3 2008Every month when the warehouse storage bill comes, I tell my wife that all those boxes of old comic books I’m keeping should be thought of as a great investment. And right on cue, she rolls her eyes and reminds me that all those boxes aren’t worth anything unless I sell them.
Harrumph.
Well, now the Wall Street Journal, that bastion of investment culture, says I was actually ahead of the market curve all those years ago when I sealed my gorgeous copy of “Fantasic Four” No. 48 up inside a Mylar bag:
Mark Craddock, manager of Comic Book World, in Florence, Ky., says stock-market investors also are turning to superheroes. “There’s kind of a buying frenzy” in vintage comic books, he says.
The “Silver Age Comic Book Pricing Index” of 32 frequently traded ’60s comics, was up 14.2% in the 18 months ending in July, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index was down 11% in the same period. Mark Haspel, president of Certified Guaranty Co. in Sarasota, Fla., which grades comic books, often for investors, says it’s on track to handle 200,000 books this year, up from 150,000 in 2007.
“Spiderman is going to be here in 20 years — he’s not going away,” Mr. Haspel says.
That’s an excerpt from an article by Jennifer Levitz on all the quirky investments that are gaining traction amid these bruising seasons on Wall Street. All of you deep-pocket corporations looking for a place to put your money, I have a full run of “West Coast Avengers” taking up waaaay too much space, it’s yours if the money is right.
– Geoff Boucher
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Why should we believe Bush now?
Its obvious someone doesn’t know what they are doing, so why should we give them $700 billion??
Commentary: White House caught napping on financial crisis – CNN.com
NEW YORK (CNN) — “I have great, great confidence in our capital markets and in our financial institutions. Our financial institutions, banks and investment banks, are strong. Our capital markets are resilient. They’re efficient. They’re flexible.”
– Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, March 16, 2008
“Our policy in this administration — laws shouldn’t bail out lenders, laws shouldn’t help speculators.”
– President Bush, May 19, 2008
“Our economy has continued growing, consumers are spending, business are investing, exports continue increasing and American productivity remains strong. We can have confidence in the long-term foundation of our economy…I think the system basically is sound. I truly do.”
– President Bush, July 15, 2008
Those were the words of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and President George W. Bush just a few months ago.
Today, of course, they have been proven completely wrong.
They are now telling us we are in a dire crisis, and that we must hand over hundreds of billions of dollars so they can lead us out of this mess.
What’s amazing to me is that the administration seems a little surprised that Congress and the American people are not marching in lockstep with them on this and not fully appreciating the urgency.
Well here’s why, in one word: accountability.
Do they think we are stupid??
The more I hear about the bailout plan, the more pissed off I get. Below, is yet another reason I am against it.
Bad News For The Bailout – Forbes.com
In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury
spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really
large number.”
