A young surgeon in Columbia, Mo., said he will invest locally from now on so that he ”can keep an eye on” his money.
A senior citizen playing bingo in St. Petersburg, Fla., said she was more anxious about winning a $35 jackpot than about the stock market collapse. As long as returns from dividends and certificates of deposit remain constant, her lifestyle won`t change.
And a waitress at the Bobber Truck Stop in Effingham, Ill., who admitted she is too poor to play the stock market, said it ”tickles” her just the same to see rich people squirm.
When the stock market plunged a catastrophic 508 points Oct. 19, Wall Street experts said the rules of investing had forever changed.
A survey in five key states for the Chicago Tribune by Peter D. Hart Research Associates found that, while there is growing uncertainty about the economy, the stock market and its problems are not viewed as the major cause of economic trouble by registered voters.
”I guess the shock that set in is how quickly things can change, and how dramatically,” said Dr. Dennis Abernathie, 37, the Missouri surgeon. ”The speed with which things can happen, that`s what bothers me. I think what I am going to do is buy into a local business. If I`m going to make money, it`s going to be something local, something I can see and something I can participate in.”
The wild and largely unexplained swings in the values of stocks fostered a feeling that people had lost the ability to control their investments, especially among those whose only contact with the market was through pension funds, profit-sharing plans or other retirement programs.
”It`s panic. I`m really concerned,”, said Ray Bunch, 49, who teaches in the Phoenix suburb of Litchfield Park and watched helplessly as his teacher retirement fund and Individual Retirement Account lost more than 20 percent in value.
”My retirement is based on that money,” he said. ”Now, I might have to postpone it. I`m concerned for the future, what this really means. Will it pass, or change the lifestyles of people in this country?”
His colleague, Barbara Camamo, 51, shared his concerns. She said she and her husband had lost between $5,000 and $10,000. Still, she said, the effects haven`t been felt yet.
”But I think they might. I really think it`s scary and certainly makes us less willing to invest in the stock market. For five years we could almost do no wrong,” she said.
”I think pyschology is a big thing, maybe the big thing. We were sitting around the table talking about it at school and I think people are scared. Even those who don`t invest in the stock market are talking about how global it is.”
Tom Moore, 33, a salesman for Jantzen sportswear in St. Louis, said he has curtailed his personal spending after seeing his profit-sharing account lose 30 percent of its value.
”I`m spending a lot less and watching my p`s and q`s,” he said. ”My net worth is going down significantly. It wasn`t all that high to begin with, but like every yuppie in this world, I didn`t put a lot of it away.”
Of greater concern to him, however, is whether the collapse will translate into reduced orders from stores and reduced commissions for him.
”If our sales are down, our income will be down,” he said. ”It`s all a matter of consumer confidence. We`ve got to have somebody to champion that confidence.”
The degree of anxiety seems to be tied to need. The great majority of people in the United States, like the truck-stop waitress in downstate Effingham, have no money to invest. Some of those who have money have rationalized losses as temporary ”paper” declines.
Some economists have predicted that the market plunge will slow consumer spending, one of the primary forces that drove the bull market.
”From a real estate standpoint, it`s real slow,” said Laura Beasley, a 43-year-old sales agent in Dallas. ”People who we thought were buyers are now on-again, off-again. Nobody seems to want to make a commitment to anything right now.”
While Beasley invests primarily in real estate, her Keough account lost between 25 and 30 percent in the market decline, she said.
”But that`s inactive money I don`t talk about. That`s something I figure I`ll need in 25 to 30 years. Surely something good will happen by then. But there`s not a whole helluva lot I can do about it,” she said.
Some people had pumped their money into businesses instead of stocks. Michael Gallant, 37, who closed on the purchase of a stereo store in Dallas the day after the crash, said initially he ”was white as a sheet.”
”But I`ve been in business a week now, and people are still coming through the doors. I`ve not seen it affect business yet, thank God,” he said. ”You read all these gloom and doom stories about retail sales, but I have yet to see it. I`m really curious to see what happens at Christmas. That will tell. I thought we had had it all here, with oil prices depressed, Dallas in recession and now the stock market crash. What else could happen? I guess they could cancel the TV show `Dallas.` ”
At a different pace, on Florida`s west coast, three retirees sat in the Raymond James brokerage office Tuesday and watched the stock ticker scroll by. ”I lost a grand last week, 13 grand the week before, 8 grand the week before and 6 grand the week before,” Harold Rosenbluth said. ”But that`s only if you look at its highest level. And it`s all on paper.”
He and the other longtime investors agreed that a ”correction” had been due and should not have created the panic it did on Wall Street.
”Part of the problem has been the media and the people who work on this business,” Rosenbluth said. ”Wall Street is located in the wrong place.
”I don`t think the stock fall has anything to do with prosperity in this country,” said his friend, Al Henderson.
”You only need two things to make money in the stock market,” Jack Cohen added. ”Patience and money.”
JoElla Pulsford, 38, the truck-stop waitress, doesn`t have either, but she also doesn`t have the headaches of the big hitters.
”I`m lower than middle class, so my life is not impacted,” she said.
”Tips are about the same, and people still have to eat.
”It sort of tickles me watching all those millionaires. Maybe this will bring them down to earth a bit.”
