Skip to main content

Statesmen vs. politicians

Jim Rogers offered up a great quote on the Greek debt crisis and the nature of politicians in his latest Bloomberg interview.

When asked
about the effects of credit default swaps (CDS) and speculators on Greece's debt problems, Rogers replied that speculators were simply reacting to what the Greeks have done to their own finances and that, "Politicians don't normally understand how the world works; that's why they're politicians".

As we've discussed before, it is always expedient for politicians to lie and point fingers at others to distract from problems and crises of their own making. Which brings me to this line of thought: what type of behavior and leadership can we expect from true statesmen, as opposed to their more opportunistic colleague, the politician?

I turned to Google for a quick survey of opinion on this topic and found this quote at Wikipedia:


"A politician thinks about the next elections — the statesman thinks about the next generations." - James Freeman Clarke


What would our country be like if we demanded and rewarded statesmanship from our political representatives, rather than pandering and opportunism? If you'd like to consider this issue, please see the posts included below or share your thoughts with us here.

Related articles and posts:

1. Difference Between Politicians and Statesmen - Laughing Wolf.

2. Comparison: Statesman and Politician - Daily Paul.

Popular posts from this blog

Finance Trends 2019 Mid-Year Markets Review

Email subscribers of the Finance Trends Newsletter receive the first look at new articles and market updates, such as the following piece, sent out to our email list on Sunday (6/14).   Hello and welcome, everyone! If you received our last email notice over the July 4th holiday, you'll know that this weekend's newsletter will serve as a mid-year market update and a follow-up to issue #29, " How to Reinvest in a Rising Market ".   Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, let's start the show...  Finance Trends Newsletter: Our Mid-Year Market Review When we last spoke, back in February, the U.S. stock market was rallying off its December-January lows. As the S&P 500 and Nasdaq reclaimed their 200 day moving averages in February and March, it became increasingly apparent that a lot of retail investors (and perhaps some institutional investors) were left under-invested while watching this recovery move from the sidelines.  The U.S. stock ...

Round trip stocks: momentum booms and busts

" No tree grows to Heaven ." - Old proverb adopted by Wall Street. What happens to hot momentum stocks when their rocket fuel runs out? How long can they continue to fly before they come crashing back down to earth? Why is the stock that you paid $100 a share for now trading at $39? These are questions that many novice traders and investors may be struggling with in the wake of the most recent market correction. Momentum stocks have been hit hard as the Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000 indices have moved lower in recent weeks. Caught unaware by the recent slide, some traders may be wondering when their beaten-down stocks will snap back and allow them to exit with smaller losses (or even reach the mythical "break even" point).  While growth stocks still firmly within their uptrends may form constructive technical bases and move higher after this correction, others may experience sharper pullbacks or break down into full "stage 4" declines (see chart below...

How to "Pull the Trigger" on Your Trading Ideas

In our last post, I quoted hedge fund manager, Jim Leitner on the importance of following up on your investment ideas.  Today I'd like to follow up and share some thoughts on how you can learn to consistently "pull the trigger" on your best trading setups and investing ideas. In order to help you do that, we'll take from the best and offer up key insights from interviews with top traders and trading psychologists like Alan Farley, Brett Steenbarger, and Doug Hirschhorn .  Now before we get to their key insights on overcoming trading anxiety and pulling the trigger on your trading ideas, let's remember what Jim Leitner said in his interview: "Learn to love to listen to people and when you hear something interesting, follow up on it. Don't just think, "Well that's an interesting idea" only to find out a year later that the company you could've bought shares in is now up 500-fold. You never want to say woulda, coulda, shoulda...