"Of Speculators and Crazies!" by Richard Crenian

Richard Crenian Blogs
February 9, 2009

“Of Speculators and Crazies……”

The Donald was on Larry King the other night. I liked what he said (even though I am not too crazy about him).

He said that the government should not meddle in the cause of business, and that the government should allow banks to fail. I think he is right. If we believe in a free enterprise, and a capitalistic society then banks will fail, businesses will fail it is only natural? Why prop up the banks and then in the case of the USA, find out that the Executives paid themselves bonuses of $18 BILLION last year with tax payer’s money?

He said that if businesses fail, then maybe we can buy some cheap assets and make some money in the long run. Makes sense to me.

Here is why I don’t like some of his advice. Prior to the crash, the Donald was predicting that his condos would always go up in price. I never figured out why one would buy expensive condos unless you are going to live in them. If you speculate, does the rent cover your expenses? If it doesn’t when the crash in condos comes, (and it is here folks!) the true value of the condo is what you can rent it for and keep your head above water with the rental after expenses.

The Speculation was all driven by greed and I know that we have some of that in us. However in our portfolio did we set aside some money for cash flowing investments?

Howard? He is driving to Tucson as we speak, he drove from Calgary to Salt Lake City last night, and now will hit Arizona and the warmth today. Lucky guy, he will be on the golf course tomorrow I am sure. He turns 65 next week, and the smartest thing he did was to invest in our cash flowing assets. Ask him, he is at 403-630-4544 on his cell.

Richard Crenian