Follow your stockbroker's advice, hey. You know why Old Joseph Kennedy bailed out of the market in September 1929-and went into liquid assets (the Scotch he smuggled was part of them)? Because he heard his shoeshine boy that morning say- "Mista Kennedy, I's gonna invest in de stock market"_-Kennedy figured that there was something way wrong with the market then if his shoeshine boy could afford to play in it, on margin.
My wise Irish Grandfather, who never trusted bankers or the market, answered very wisely for me many of my boyhood questions- simple and direct answers- no "beatin' around the bush"- so to speak. We were holding his Model 12 12 gauge one night, after a big shoot- cleaning it- and I asked him about stockbrokers-
So he used the M-12 broken down as an example, long before the USMC taught me that "field stripping" does NOT involve Gypsy Rose Lee- Son, you strip down that big word into its component parts, and what do you get? Stock and broker, right? So- you buy the stock he is touting, and when it goes into the crapper, as they all do sooner or later, which one of you goes "broke-er" first". He would have seen Bernie Madoff coming ten miles away on a cloudy day.
He also taught me two other valuable concepts, almost akin to Mario Puzo's great character based on real life, Don Vito Corleone. (1) If you want to know what is going on inside any business, make friends with the janitor- (2) Always go out of your way to befriend what the late Leona Helmsley called "the little people" If you are ever hauled into a court of law, there will be more of them in the jury pool than the Koch brothers..
Last edited by Run With The Fox; 08/22/16 09:35 AM.
