The U.S. Government may be forced to shut down some time this morning. In Minnesota, we have a history of similar government shutdowns.
On midnight, July 1, 2011, the State of Minnesota shut down. All state government spending and operations stopped. All state government offices were closed.
The shutdown lasted until July 20th when a state budget was finally passed. All of us in Minnesota survived the government shutdown. We were all more than a little bit embarrassed and ridiculed by all our friends and family members who live across the U.S.
The Minnesota state government shutdown was entertaining. A potential U.S. Government shutdown is much more serious.
No one knows what is going to happen if the men and women in Washington, D.C. fail to raise the debt ceiling. If the U.S. Government runs out of money to pay its bills on time, there is no known answer to that problem.
Even the people on TV and in the print media who get paid to know what is going to happen next have no real idea what is going to happen next.
A slow economy, high unemployment, and a housing crisis over the last few years have all failed to get the attention of the people who govern this country.
The Republicans are threatening to shut down the U.S. Government because they want to stop Obamacare. The Democrats and the President don’t want that to take place.
Caught in the middle are stock and bond market investors like you and me. All we want to do is save and invest some money to pay for college and retirement. A nice vacation once-in-a-while would be fine too.
The U.S. and world economies are all watching. Even the professional investors are nervous. Now would be a great time to not take any more stock or bond market risk than you are comfortable with.
I have told my clients that if 2013 ended today, we would have had a great investment year. Some of my clients have decided that makes sense now. They don’t want to take any more unnecessary stock and bond market risks going forward.
When the risk going forward is unknown, most times it is not worth taking those risks.
Let the individual investors who are not paying attention now take all the risks.
Pay attention now.
Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.
