The Great Craps Shoot and the those that call the numbers.....

this morning on NPR I heard some AEI "fellow" named David Frum? talking about the stock market and the Boomers. He was saying that the size of the market over the past decade or so has been due to the Boomers squirreling away retirement monies and that some day they will start all cashing in at the same time and this will affect the market, but Mr. AEI sez he'll continue to squirrel away in the meantime. Now, I get that Zogby poll online and everytime it asks me if I consider myself a member of the investor class. I used to answer to the affirmative, but now I always answer "no." I don't consider myself to be an investor even though my vested retirement plan has stock as part of the portfolio. I consider an investor someone who plays the Great Craps Shoot by choice, not because participation in the company retirement plan is mandatory.

I'm curious what DUers take on this idea that everyone will cash in their chips at about the same time and ideas on what such a scenario will do to the economy as we know it.

as boomers cash out the equity in their houses and downsize.

told them in the 1960s: those old Boomers are evil, they'll all do the same things at the same time just to fuck everybody else up and they'll NEVER DIE! That last is important for all the Chicken Littles out there who are vulnerable to social security destruction schemes. Now we're all going to cash in our stock portfolios on the same day, so nobody under 50 is ever going to be able to breathe easily or enjoy the fruits of his labor.

Don't worry, kids. We'll continue to die off a lot faster than our parents did since we faced the brunt of the economic bungling and health care cruelty this country has become known for since conservatives took over in 1969. We'll always try to live on our interest and dividends and not dip into the principal for as long as we can because that is what we were taught by our Depression era parents. Oh, and as long as we're alive, we'll continue to fight to get conservatives out of power and keep them out because we have experienced firsthand what their rule means and why it was better when liberals were in charge.

When we kick off, we might even leave you something, so shut the fuck up, Mr. Frum, and bugger back to your anti American stink tank and enjoy the slow, agonizing retreat back to the lunatic fringe. It's where you belong and I'm sure you'll be happier there while we fix the mess your kind made.

It is true that people may slant their portfolios more to income instead of growth as they approach retirement, but that is a gradual process.
People don't suddenly sell all their stocks when they retire.
Usually the only scenario that will cause that is catastrophic medical bills.
If you want to forstall THAT, how about some action on the health care side!
Fortunately, not all boomers will get sick at the same time.

AEI may be trying to explain away the fact that the market did so much better under Bill Clinton than under Bush**.

As for "playing the Great Craps Shoot by choice", I think you may be taking an overly narrow view.
People diversify their investments to try to make it less of a crap shoot. Investment doesn't only mean stock.
Putting it in the bank is a form of investment. There the crap shoot is inflation, and the house almost always wins.

Assuming that one is saving *something*, one doesn't really have a choice about paricipating in the "Great Craps Shoot".
We may have some choice in the tables at which we place our bets though.