ON LOOKING AT MY SMITH BARNEY STATEMENT

Yesterday my Smith Barney statement came. I was in two minds- should I open it or not? Certainly it held no good news, since this was October , 2008 the month of the big meltdown. The only question was how bad it was. I decided to go ahead and read it - I am no coward. Actually it wasn't too bad, but bear in mind the statement ended September 30, and the real carnage happened in October.

Also, I'm virtually out of the stock market and hold almost exclusively bonds, which should be O.K. unless some of those solid(?) companies I chose go under. That could well happen since I have such beauties as General Motors, Wachovia, Credit Suisse, and the like.

How could General Motors come to this, to the point when you worry whether or not the giant will declare bankruptcy? I remember during the Great War when the GM president said "As General Motors goes, so goes the nation!" And it was true. What Japan could not win at Iwo Jima, they seem to have won in Flint, Michigan. No more Chevvies, and Buicks, and Cadillacs? That can never happen. A pox on Japanese cars.