remember when?

it seems like just yesterday that i was sitting up in the hollywood hills, looking out over the city of angels with a tasty bourbon in hand, watching my real-time stock portfolio numbers climb into greener and greener pastures. maria bartiromo had just gotten her own show, and companies like international fibercom were giving me the impression that soon, the deafening stream of expletives coming from the “fuck you” money i was envisioning was going to necessitate earplugs.
cut to: five years later. i dumped a bunch of apple today, to commemorate this anniversary of overvaluedness. (and, i suppose to a degree, in recognition of sony’s entry into the flash-memory personal music player, i.e. ipod market).
i didn’t get stung as badly as many other people i knew, and the expectations that i had were nowhere near my wildly exaggerated description above. i certainly remember talking to other people during that time who really did believe that shit. they would be retired and living on an island they bought from aristotle onassis jr. by AT THE VERY LATEST, age 40. the NEW ECONOMY had rewritten the rules, and the market could never go DOWN. since then, whenever i hear that an investment is never going to go down, i look down to make sure my WALLET CHAIN is securely in place. i hear it almost constantly about real estate these days, which is why i am still living in a CHEAP APARTMENT. well that, and i am not in a hurry to start mowing lawns and raking leaves again just yet.