Wikinvest Wire

You say it's your birthday

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Today is my birthday - I'm 49 years old.

For the first time in my life, I'm older than the President of the United States, which is a very strange feeling.

Born at the tail end of the baby boom and just before the beginning of Generation X, I've never felt a particular kinship with either group.

That's probably not a bad thing.

Other notable birthdays on this day are John Harvey Kellogg (1852 - Kellog's cereal), Victor Hugo (1802), William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846), Johnny Cash (1932), Fats Domino (1928), and Robert Novak (1931).

On February 26th, 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed and, on this day in 1995, Barings PLC, Britain's oldest investment banking firm, collapsed after a securities dealer lost more than $1.4 billion by gambling on Tokyo stock prices.

That seemed like a big number at the time.

Today's headlines read:

All the big numbers now seem to be losing their meaning.

My wife and I don't own a house, we don't have any children, we don't owe anyone a nickel, and we have a pile of money that we're in no particular hurry to spend.

In contrast, the U.S. government has plenty of misbehaving kids, owes the world almost $11 trillion, continues to borrow money with abandon, and can't seem to spend it fast enough.

Cue the music...

17 comments:

Yophat said...

Happy Birthday!!!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday 'ol man!

Dan said...

Happy Birthday! (This message sponsored by Generation X)

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday!!!

It seems to me that, despite the weirdness in America, you've got a lot to be proud of and thankful for.

So, your age, the national debt, GM's loss and all the other big numbers notwithstanding, it's a great day to celebrate!

Anonymous said...

As others said, happy b-day even though it's now the morning of the 27th.

I'm in my early 30s, but I'm actually starting to envy people in their 60s and above. If this crisis continues as long as I think it might, I hate to think what's going to happen to life expectancies. Even though being 80 doesn't sound like fun, I'd like to make it long enough to judge for myself.

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday Tim!

staghounds said...

Happy Birthday! Older than the President is a scary idea.

There's actually a name for your birth cohort- "Generation Jones".

I'm chronologically a Jones, but I think more X and I've despised the Boomers since I was able to despise.

Tim said...

Thanks everybody - I don't feel any older...

Aaron Krowne said...

They owe way more than $11 trillion. States owe a couple trillion, and growing. The Fed, Treasury and FDIC owe $8 trillion or so (of course, there are some toxic assets backing that-- HAH!).

And finally, you can watch James Lockhart do a funny little dance to make it look like the GSE obligations are explicit obligations of the US government, without formally making it so, to avoid adding another $5-6 trillion to the public debt (which is the effective truth).

So you are way better off than them, Tim ;)

ConnectingTheDots said...

Happy Birthday, and congrats on a cool blog.

As mentioned by another commenter above, you are lost between Boom and X no longer: you are part of Generation Jones (born 1954-1965) between the Boomers and Generation X. Many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) specifically use this term to describe Obama and others who are now the new generation of US leadership.

Here's an op-ed on Generation Jones in USA TODAY just a few weeks ago:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm

And this page has a bunch of recent stuff about GenJones:
http://generationjones.com/2009latest.html

Consider using your blog to help spread awareness of our long-lost generation. Personally, I am fed up being called a Boomer or Xer, and am quite excited about this whole GenJones thing spreading.

Kevin said...

happy birthday ---- planning a move to a new part of the country can definitely keep one young-ish. any decisions made? made the move to portland 6 years ago (at 42) and one of the better decisions I've made.

good luck!

kevin

donna said...

Happy Birthday!

Remember you are now actually entering your 50th year on the planet. ;^)

I don't like naming the tweener generations. We did have different influences, so we are the change in generational thought, though. Perhaps it's why I'm so attracted to change itself. ;^)

Anonymous said...

A day late, but Happy Birthday, TIM !!

Tim said...

Thanks for the Generation Jones stuff - I'll have a look. I don't have to join, right?

I think we've made a final decision on the move north - to be announced in a week or two. We joke around now that, if we don't like where we end up, we can just move in another year or two and try someplace else.

Anonymous said...

Hope you had a happy birthday and many more to come.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday,

On the bright side, you can still live to be twice your age, something I will not.

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