About Doomsday Scenarios and the Greatest of Investments

Strange how fate sometimes plays tricks on mankind and a how a sequence of events get so ironic and/or so foreboding. Just after Forbes magazine released its newest list of billionaires on March 9, 2011, Yahoo News headlined on March 10 an interesting article intriguingly entitled “Will March 19 Supermoon Trigger Natural Disasters?

The next day Friday March 11, as if on cue, Japan rocked like it never did for the last 140 years, the seas surged and moved like mountains sweeping everything in its path. As reports say, “The waves swept across rice fields, engulfed towns, dragged houses onto highways, and tossed cars and boats like toys.”

The Pacific basin swirled, warnings blared and jammed airwaves from country to country and from coast to coast. All across the Pacific rim, people moved to safer areas, eyes and ears glued to the news fronts. For a night or so, everybody seemed to have endured paranoia and a sense of impending doom. The more devout dropped on bended knees and clasped hands in abject supplication to the Divine.

Everybody knows the disaster that is still raging on in some form or another in Japan as of this writing. The conservative estimate is that at least a thousand perished in the 8.9 magnitude quake or from the fires that followed. As to the radiation or possible meltdown from the five or so nuclear reactors which lost cooling systems, well, let’s just hope the problem will be contained soonest. It has been a mini-doomsday, a foretaste of Apocalypse for mankind.

Back to the “Supermoon” article, the piece says that on March 19, the moon will be closest to the earth and as per noted astrologer named Richard Nolle, “chaos will ensue: huge storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters can be expected to wreak havoc on Earth.”

Strange coincidence? Maybe. Not that we should believe in astrology. That is not my concern although we must credit the guy for his uncannily accurate prediction.

Or signs of the times? Well, only the most callous can probably shrug his shoulders and dismiss the raging event.

Hence, while today’s post is supposed to continue with our foray on business literacy as I mentioned in the last article, I have to change plans. I have to temporarily shelve the business literacy sequel article and hastily assemble a piece more relevant to the times.

That the “Supermoon” article and the “super-quake” event came closely on the heels of the Forbes release of new billionaires seem to speak volumes in ironic suggestions and implications. It is as if a great Somebody speaks to us and reminds us on the ultimate vanity of worldly accumulation.

Well, at least the legendary Gates, no. 2 on the list, is reported to have given US$30 billion for charities and is actively campaigning for others to join the club.

We cannot deny the fact that all of us get affected with these concerns. Earthquakes, tsunamis, sovereign debt crises, civil wars, and so on…these are all bad for investment (although ironically good for some but that is another story). And if we speak of doomsday, we may even get depressed and lose motivation.

Hence, we might as well “strike while the iron is hot” and take on this issue of doomsday head-on.

Here is my take on the whole doomsday issue. This is based on my own readings and personal dabbling on the spiritual side. This is highly personal and you are free to reflect if these make sense or dismiss outright if they do not.

One, the world is now very much stressed and has entered the endgame stage – as predicted by practically all the major religions in the world. While the most recent disaster may have been a natural one, many of the disasters that visit us – wretched creatures – are brought upon by our very own folly, not to mention greed. There is hardly any dispute on how we have abused Mother Earth and pillaged it’s resources. The more stress a system accumulates the more unpredictable it becomes and the more it fights back.

Two, doomsday is sure to come – but whether this comes soon or late depends upon how mankind in general comports itself. Continued un-moderated greed and pillage of precious resources would certainly hasten the day.

Three, the financial markets will be a major arena to play the doomsday scenario – and the ultimate trigger is debt or its mirror image called credit. Right now there is so much debt in every financial nook and cranny of the globe, much of it will never be paid. Just remember the sub-prime fiasco of 2008. Bad things are sure to happen when debts are neither paid nor forgiven.

It does not take a PhD degree but just plain common sense to figure out that “credit is to capital as shadow is to substance”. There is now so much shadow floating with little or no substance at all.

Call them ghosts or zombies, they will wreck havoc on mankind. Almost every US economist outside of the employ of US government predicts that such bad outcome is inevitable.

What do we do in this case? Well, concerning the financial doomsday aspect, there is something we can do and that is what I have been saying for the nth time like a broken record.

Be literate in investment and avoid the debt trap. Do not participate in this folly of debt accumulation.

Apart from that, participate in the greatest investment a man can ever make.

And what is that? Well, the greatest investment a man can ever make is “investment in eternity.” I don’t remember exactly where I picked this maxim up from but to me, this sure makes a great deal of sense. You are free to make your own interpretation and to fill in the details.

Whatever your race or creed, the meaning should be as clear as sunlight. In fact, this is our only hope.

It does not matter whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu or Buddhist or otherwise.

When everybody invests in eternity, doomsday probably may never come.