I have a somewhat different reason than most for basking a little bit in the I-told-you-so afterglow. I’m in the business of valuation and it’s my job to call it straight down the middle. I spent no small amount of effort observing and reporting that, regardless of what the buyers were doing during the runup, there were significant and unavoidable risks involved. I lost out on a lot of business as a result of being honest and I watched the dishonest players profit via their misconduct. I had idiots telling me that being well informed wasn’t nearly as important as being bold and “going for the dream”.
Most of my long term clients listened to me and had equally well informed opinions of their own that prevented them from participating in the orgy. They didn’t run up the massive short term profits but they also aren’t facing the massive long term losses. They will survive quite well to continue doing business. Those clients who didn’t listen to me and went with their yes-men are now facing some real problems.
I’d bet $100 that virtually all the losers have – at least once – ignorantly bragged about how smart their decisions were to the more prudent people around them. That’s why I don’t look at them as being innocent bystanders and why I don’t feel any guilt whatsoever in the misery they are currently going through. This meltdown isn’t some accident of nature and for the most part these people were never victimized.
