ZOMBIE WEEKEND

This was the weekend after Citi hit $3.71 (or was it $3.88?) and the newspapers were full of dire articles about its fate. And I became a, well, zombie.

I called a couple of people and told them I was wiped out. Then I started to worry about my pension. Then I sat down and added up all the money it would take for me to stay in my apartment. Then I thought of all those people in 1929. I always wondered what that felt like.

Then I went back into denial.

Technique for return to denial: contact a lot of people who know more than you do; like, people who still work at Citi, people who majored in economics, lawyers who know the laws about pensions, etc. Tell them your woeful tale and signal slyly what you wish you'd hear back from them. They will, for the most part, read your signals and tell you what you long to hear. Find them credible. And voila, you are back on the couch knitting and watching tv and thinking you really won't have to give up your apartment and move in with your mother after all.

But it's a good thing I have all those Hermes scarves. The only investment that hasn't lost its value. Go Hermes!