Financial Planning Services that make a difference... 

Mark A. Goldman

I’ve been in the business of advising people on financial matters for about 30 years.   It took the first twenty or so to become aware of how little I knew compared to what I thought I knew... like how things actually work in Washington, on Wall Street, in the mainstream media, and at our most prestigious universities.


 

Now I have a better sense of how limited, (and how beneficial), my formal education was.  I also have a better sense of what the true risks are that we all face as we try to navigate the uncharted territory ahead in pursuit of long term goals.

I say "uncharted" because, despite what the so-called experts (and the institutions that pay their salaries) would have you believe, I think our economy now faces unprecedented challenges...challenges we haven't faced since our nation's founding.  And I believe that when it comes to the management of financial assets, the rules of thumb we learned from past experience are not likely to be very helpful going forward.  

Fortunately I've known this for more than a few years now and clients who took my advice during the recent market collapse in 2008 were able to avoid the substantial declines that many others didn't avoid.  I honestly don't know how difficult it will be for my clients to navigate the troubled waters ahead, but my guess is, probably a little easier with my help than it would be for them to do it on their own.  But that's not a sure bet.

The near economic collapse (and possible future collapse) of our economy was engineered by those who claimed, and still claim, that they know what they are doing and are working for the best interests of their clients and the larger community.  

I wish that were true.  But I don't believe it is.

I’ve written extensively about issues that I think are important to all of us; most of it having little to do with economic issues or the management of money per se, but enough to give you an idea of how we got into this mess and why we're likely to be stuck here for quite a while.  

I first saw in the year 2000 that the economic policies being proposed by the Bush administration were not only ill conceived, but entirely fraudulent.  That's when I started writing again; which is to say, when it became evident that not only was a future economic tragedy being purposely engineered and advocated, but the administration was also pursuing a panoply of other destructive policies, the implications of which, went far beyond simple economics.

So my writing began to encompass more than just economic issues.  Nevertheless, the truth is, everything I wrote about had, and still has, economic consequences... for ordinary citizens, for the nation as a whole, and for the planet.  For all intents and purposes, despite the change of administrations, those ill conceived policies continue unimpeded even to this day with devastating consequences for a great many of us today and for our posterity.

The truth is, given what we already know about science, technology, jurisprudence, economics, and ethics, our future could be brighter than anything humanity has ever experienced.  And yet the chance that we will ever achieve our potential, given the state of consciousness that pervades our culture and its institutions, seems to be fading fast.  Knowing that we already have the answers we need to succeed... it seems kind of foolish that we lack the will.  That's where our focus needs to be...

                                          — Mark A. Goldman

About the author


 
We are facing a period of unprecedented uncertainly in various aspects of life, including:
  

1. global climate change.

2.   economic stagnation and/or inflation.

3.   government corruption and mismanagement. 

4.  lack of wisdom, leadership, and credible information coming from our most critical institutions.

This reality means that the future is not going to look like the past.

It will now take inspired insight and imagination 
to survey
the landscape,
choose realistic goals, identify opportunities, and navigate troubled waters ahead.

 


Copyright © 1999-2012 Mark A. Goldman