"Nowadays, you can't turn on the TV without some talking head telling you about the economy. Yet, in a world overrun by 'analysts,' only one man has the guts, the brains, and, quite frankly, the poetry to put it all in perspective.That man is Michael Silverstein... Silverstein is a true intellectual." — Gersh Kuntzman, The New York Post

"Few people have found much to laugh about in the stock market this year. Michael Silverstein is the exception. The Bard of the Bourse can find humor in losing money, globalization and stock options." — USA Today

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About Silverstein's Verse

 

Some middling verse, and even some outright awful verse, occasionally contains a few great lines. In this middling verse category is Alfred Lord Tennyson’s "I Envy Not In Any Moods" poem. It certainly isn’t one of Tennyson’s best, but it does close with these memorable lines:

‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Then never to have loved at all.

My financial market refurbishment of "I Envy Not..." is titled "I Don’t Despair When Stocks Go Bust." It expresses the mood of an investor who has been rocked (and perhaps rolled as well) by recent events in the stock market, but who still feels the game beats the safe but unexciting wealth run up you get from savings. My Tennysonian closer here is:

‘Tis better on occasion weep
Than never to have risked a fall.

I Don’t Despair
When Stocks Go Bust

I don’t despair when stocks go bust
And envy those who stood aside,
Who never for the big gain vied,
‘Cause markets have not won their trust.

I don’t despair or get the grumps
When caution proves the wiser way;
Let prudent savers have their day,
I’ll place my bets and take my lumps.

Some people say that safe is best,
Its incremental gains are sure;
This route I happily ignore,
More meaty profits are my quest.

Though great’s the pain when markets pall,
For those, like me, who’d jackpots reap:
‘Tis better on occasion weep
Than never to have risked a fall.

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