I went to an alumni event last week for one of the schools that I went to. The "keynote" speaker was a banker from one of the bulge brackets and the crowd in attendance ran the gamut in terms of age. Nothing in particular that was said was terribly memorable or important or innovative. But, what I did take away from the experience is that people generally continue to operate from the same set of assumptions. In spite of the problems of recent time, lots of folks (and forgive me for extrapolating from the small set that I was with) subscribe to the same talking points that get thrown around the mainstream media. Whether left or right, though, where they seemed to converge was that the government should come to the rescue. Which means that the position that I have taken in my investing is still the contrarian voice (I say "contrarian" because I think it will turn out to be right).
A couple of other sidebars that stuck with me:
-The conversation with the lev-fin banker who called gold a "speculation" and nothing else. He meant it in the most pejorative way possible.
-The wanna-be quant who called deregulation the problem, whereas I think it is just bad regulation. Had I thought of it at the time, I might have suggested the Friedman/Kraus book.
Lastly, my posting has gotten sparse. When something profound happens, I expect it will inspire more from me.
