Fasten Your Seat Belts! (Economy And Wall Street Edition)

I have never ridden Drop Tower Scream Zone at California's Great America, but what’s more frightening than watching the Dow plummet 1000 points during the Flash Crash of 2010?

I have never ridden Barracuda Blaster or Blue Thunder/White Lightning at Raging Waters in San Jose, but I did get completely soaked and found myself underwater with my investment in KKD (Krispy Kreme Donuts) in 2004.

I have never seen David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear at a Las Vegas casino, but I’ve seen an investment in IndyMac Bank go poof overnight.

I have seen the movie Jaws, and I wonder whether corporate predators are just as much to be feared, since they can leave a company for dead like Mervyns.

I have marveled at the grafting ingenuity behind Gilroy Gardens’ Circus Trees many times, but I empathize with Time Warner investors who wish the grafting of AOL onto Time Warner was nipped in the bud, or HP investors who feel the same way about Compaq.

I have never ridden Delirium at California's Great America, but for dizziness, I think the head-spinning changes in the banking sector can’t be beat. Such as World Savings becoming Wachovia. And Wachovia becoming Wells Fargo. Wamu becoming Chase. And Merrill Lynch becoming Bank of America.

I have never ridden Disneyland’s Haunted House (okay, I did, once, with my eyes closed) but tell me, don’t you think what happened to Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns was just as spooky!

I have been on Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean, but I wonder whether it’s better to deal with a straightforward enemy like a pirate than with a wolf in sheep’s clothing such as a Bernie Madoff.

And finally, I have marvelled at how big a bubble can grow at the Bubbalogna exhibit at the Children’s Discovery Museum, but the bubble to beat all bubbles, you will agree, is the housing bubble that began in 2001 and burst in 2007.

P.S. I am sorry if I am dragging up all these nasty things you’d much rather forget. The stock market rout of the last week made me think of what a wild ride it has been in the economic and business arena. I realized that for thrills and gore and giving one the heebie jeebies, many of the events of the last decade have been every bit as hair-raising and eye-popping as the thrills we seek out at popular entertainment venues as Disneyland, Las Vegas, California’s Great America, Raging Waters, Gilroy Gardens and Children’s Discovery Museum.

And so before you could say Jack Sparrow, this post had written itself.

As always thanks for reading!