Beare:

Start the rollercoaster! | want to get on!

a eH

 

a yen EE Se

 

s now
a good
time to

invest in
the stock
market

or not? I don’t claim to be any sort of
financial expert, but as a young person
looking to lay a stake in the big bad
world and sow seeds for the future, it’s
a question that I’ve been considering
for the past several weeks. It’s time to
put away Milton Bradley’s Game of
Life and set up the board for my own
Game of Life.

With the economic downturn
now an embedded day to day reality,
now is a far more interesting time for
newcomers to begin observing the
markets. The Dow Industrial Average
is down to six-year lows and stocks
that were once trading for $20, $30 and
$40 are now available for $2, $3 and
$4 or less. While one might assume
that the market is a cyclical entity and
will eventually return to its healthy
vibrant levels, a year, five years from
now, or whenever, the trick will be to

 

determine which companies will come
out of the fire unscathed. There’s a very
good reason why once-mighty stocks
are now bargains. Which of these
companies will survive? This brings up
the idea of government intervention.
The irony of mega-capitalism is that

as some companies are so huge,
employ so many people and have such
a stake in the overall economy that
governments would rather bail them out
with billions of dollars than let market
forces send them into bankruptcy
thereby wrecking the lives of thousands
workers, consumers and the fortunes of
millionaires.

The stock I’ve been watching for
the past few weeks is CitiGroup. With
holdings all over the world and assets
of upwards of $1 trillion it is one of
the largest corporations on the planet.

It is also one of those big American
banks that are in severe trouble. Shares
in this company closed this week at
what deceptively looks like a dirt cheap
$1.95; deceptive in that there is no
prescribed bottom for this or any stock.
So I still can’t bring myself to pull the

trigger on it. Also, talks of temporarily
nationalizing the big banks and
restructuring them could very well wipe
the slate clean on investors leaving
them with nothing. On the flip side,
speculation that the banks won’t be
nationalized is a force that’s helped the
stock to inch back up from $1.60. It’s a
lot of variables to consider and picking
the right time to go is difficult

As a newcomer, the information
out there is boundless and it can be
overwhelming. The acronyms are crazy
and there are concepts that still sound
like Greek even after you’ve combed
through the explanation a dozen times.
It takes a cast iron stomach and a lot
of chutzpah to play the market. But
the rewards can be dizzying (or so
I’m told) and if you don’t do so well,
it can be downright terrifying. It’s a
gamble for sure and you can’t always
rely on the analysts, doing so would
be like putting all your faith in your
weatherman.

One last thing to consider is
whether the stock market is the best
place to grow your money. There are a

lot of options out there, but often they
provide lower risk or even no risk for
less growth.

While nobody can truly predict the
fluctuations that occur on a daily basis,
the only real golden rule to follow is
education, as long as you follow the
company you’re interested in with a
magnifying glass, then you can base
your decisions on what you’ve learned
and what you believe might happen and
with any luck, you’ll come out on top.

 

 

 

 

 

www.michaelpaulus.com

By Nikalas Kryzanowski
Opinions Editor

aturday morning was a time
S for innocence that consisted

of millions of kids with their
favourite sugary breakfast cereal
enjoying hour after hour of cartoons.
It’s hard to say that any kids took it
deeper than that. But artist Michael
Paulus took it one step further in a
pretty macabre way by going beneath
the skin of these 2D icons and
developing hypothetical models of their
skeletal systems. It’s an experiment
that yielded some pretty amusing and
downright unsettling results. Paulus
goes beneath the surface of those
adorable little Power Puff Girls to
find horrible, bug eyed aliens. Fred
Flintstone stays true to his Neanderthal
heritage with thick bones and a long
drawn down skull. Betty Boop with
her oblong head and lack of chin looks
less like a pinup model than some kind
of mutant. Great legs though. They

all look more like creatures, plain and
simple, than cutesy. But then again

I suppose we all do. Underneath our
own smooth, exfoliated skin lays a
similar collection of bones which if
left standing alone would be a pretty
disturbing sight. I guess Paulus’s
pictures punch home the effect because
as people we’re ingrained to recognize
other human shapes, and with the
drawings, the human layer is peeled
away leaving distorted but fascinating
proportions.

  

By Natalie Nathanson

s the Lower Mainland gets
A= and more plagued by

ruthless gang violence, I’m
reminded of a time where gangs
were also prevalent in society.
Although it’s a time I unfortunately
have not seen for myself, history has
been preserved through the likes of
films and books. I’m talking about
the gangs of the good ol’ days, the
gangs of the 50s.

Back then, being in a gang
really did give you a sense of pride.
You were a hoodlum and nothing
more. You weren’t a murderer or
a drug dealer. You may carry a
cigarette behind your ear and a flip
comb in your back pocket, maybe
a knife as well, but it was only to
intimidate.

Back then being in a gang was
about racing cars and swooning
chicks. A lot of gangs would steal
cars, joyride around in them for the
night, but the next morning they’d

and usually with a full tank of gas.
Gangs of today and back
then have wars over disputes and
territory. However, in those days,
no one would open fire on you
while you were sitting in your car,
waiting for the lights to turn green.
There was no senseless bloodshed
in the city streets involving innocent

 

 

 

park the car back where they found it

West Coast Story: these guys have
nothing on the Jets and Sharks

people. The leaders of each gang
would meet face to face and arrange
a rumble. A rumble was a planned
fight usually at night in a park or
other area that was away from other
people. The leaders would go their
separate ways but that night come
back with their posses and meet at
the designated spot and battle it out.

Sometimes they’d have rules
and even have rumbles that forbade
the use of weapons. It was just men
and their fists beating raw flesh.
Those caught using weapons at these
rumbles were often scowled at by
both parties. Deaths at these rumbles
would still take place, but at least
everyone knew going into it what
might happen.

I have no problem with the
gangs of today killing each other; the
more they kill of themselves the less
of them there are. There’s always
going to be gangs and violence
associated with it. But there’s no
need to strike fear into the hearts of
those who have chosen to lead their
lives free of violence and crime by
killing each other in broad daylight
with guns and bullets that can stray
and hit an innocent passerby. Why
not battle it out on the fields one
night like the Jets and the Sharks?
Wouldn’t it be better to kill each
other with bare hands rather than
from afar with a gun, like a coward?