Friday, February 19, 2010

Income Wasted On Stocks

Davy Stockbrokers has come out firing at the Irish public for wasting their money. Those who followed Davy's advice and invested in Barry O'Callaghan's high seas adventure must surely be shaking their heads in amazement.

That's why Ireland was never a wealthy nation, says the report. Money flowed in to workers and they turned around and cast it to the four winds. What greater waste of money was there than buying into an excessively leveraged corporate buy-out of publishing giant Houghton Mifflin? All that cash is gone in the restructuring and it's unlikely that Davy's clients will see a penny back from their investment.

What of those who didn't care to become a part of Riverdeep's school of publishing fishes?

Davy believes that they paid over-the-top prices for housing, which of course isn't the most productive use of anyone's assets. Better by far to keep living in your Gran's box room, paying minimum rent and stashing your cash in a bank account where it's safe to grow at a slow but steady pace.

What of the ladies and their shopping trips to New York City? Now there's a true waste of money, what with women's fashions changing every few months and an expensive pair of shoes no longer in style after one wearing.

Did Ireland get anything right? As far as Davy is concerned, the investment in the nation's roads was money well spent, since better travel conditions allowed for economic expansion, to say nothing of the explosion of home construction in what was once the quiet countryside. Building was once a booming industry and tradesmen were rolling in dough.

Education was the other bright spot in an otherwise gloomy report, but now that all the money has gone away, even education will have to take a hit and university fees will have to be raised.

The trick will be to learn from the past and its flurry of excess while finding the safest places to make deep cuts in the budget.

Does that mean that anyone flying to New York City for a long weekend should stock up on textbooks rather than Manolos?

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