As we blunder around trying to figure out where to put what’s left of our money, the occasional irrational urge to invest in a stock bubbles up. Most of the time, I bat it down. Some products, however, speak to needs that are eternal and resistant to the vagaries of time and finance.
I was walking to work in midtown New York City this morning. I was late, and crossed the street at 57th a little before 10:00 AM. As I neared 56th going south on Fifth Avenue, I saw an enormous crowd wrapped around the block. They were waiting to get into Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF). I approached a security guard who was chewing gum and watching the orderly mob, which had lined up behind established barriers, from an adjacent corner with, I thought, an amused and dubious expression. I asked him what was up.
“Like this every day,” he said. “The put up pictures of big naked men and everybody wants to get inside first thing.”
“There’s no TV star inside?” I asked? “No celebrity? Nothing special?”
“Like this every day,” he said again. “Crazy people.”
Crazy, sure. Crazy about the same thing people have been crazy about in good times and bad, through wars, recessions, depressions, stagflations and other various wormholes in economic time. Whoever is selling the current iteration of that has nothing to worry about. They’re promising the kind of return for a reasonable investment that the whole world is looking for every day, come rain or come shine. No wonder people line up to wait for it to open. They’re aroused.
I’d buy that for a dollar.