Alien sightings, government cover-ups, and investment risk

The irony in this story is that the odds of multiple governments, and agencies among them, being able to keep a secret are even less likely than the possibility of the alien sightings themselves.

It is not that I do not believe that there might be some form of life out there in the universe somewhere, it is that I do not believe all of the fantasies and conspiracy theories.

This brings me to our current investing climate. Each time we invest we are taking some risk. In the past few years there was a complete abandonment of the notion that there was any risk. Risk was tremendously under valued and risks were taken without any understanding of the potential harm that might be done.

While we can scream about all the ratings agencies and investment houses and the majority of economists not assessing risk properly and in essence exposing our financial systems to a potential total collapse, we must also ask ourselves where our own responsibility lies.

During the three years that I have been blogging numerous readers sounded the alarm. They saw the risk. I would surmise that I personally must have received over a hundred comments about our misguided economic leadership and the potential market collapse that would ensue. It did not take Dr. Roubini of NYU to sound the alarm, our practical readers were ranting and raving for as long as I have been blogging. I think they have done better to handicap the market than the professionals have.

When we invest we traverse our own personal "handicapping" on risk versus reward so if investors are astute at this task than what about your view on aliens... What are the odds? Is there any way to create a marketable security related to hedging on the possibility of aliens landing on earth?

There seems to be something about standing on the ledge of reason that draws large numbers of people to conclusions not in evidence. Even more to the point, there are more cases of fabricated evidence of UFO's and alien visitors than there are clues to support a cover-up or conspiracies.

So I ask my faithful readers for some main street wisdom, what say ye?



Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money.