Economics 707

It seems we are in an economics crisis that forces ALL of us to take lessons in high finance. Not only are we subjected to daily doses of Economics 101 (introductory insights), but we're forced to apply advanced concepts that in effect take us on a jet ride into the atmosphere of erudition. Economics 707 is where we're at, and I'm not quite ready for it. I'm still back on the slow train to Omaha - trying to figure out the nuts and bolts of beginning finance, learning about businesses I can understand, and investing in companies I'm familiar with - the famed Warren Buffet way: Invest in What You Know.

So here's today's lesson: Citigroup has gobbled up Wachovia (see Yahoo! News, 9/29/08. Finally the economic crisis has hit OUR home, for we have money at Wachovia. Not by choice, mind you! We invested our money via CD's in the World Savings Bank of Golden West, the economic empire created by Herb and Marion Sandler. This husband-wife team safely negotiated the 70's S&L failures (see Why Sandlers Sold). They were a couple we could believe in, and had a compelling story. In fact, Marion surfaced for me as an Icon of Economics, a guru of sorts, who represented all women who wished to sail into the next century (see Marion Sandler - "The Jeff Bezos of Banking").

We stayed with Wachovia after the Sandlers sold out, but soon we developed a distaste for the impersonality and arrogance of their approach to finance. Gone were the tellers we knew, gone were the savings pass-books that reminded us of the security of simple banks like the ones we'd grown up with. In their place were arbitrary interest rates ("No, we no longer match the best rate out there"), and imposing polymer counter-tops. We vowed we would move our monies next time the CD's came due. Looks like we waited too long.

Now, whether we want to or not, we've become CitiBank customers. It matters not that we had so carefully kept away from them! Their reach around the world, their dominance of a hegemony of inter-connecting wheeler-dealers, was not to our taste. Alas, we now dine at their table, and they will sip the wine of our wealth. They will grow richer as we shrink into insignificance. Such is the new economic order. And every day provides one more lesson for Metaphoric Economic Analysis.