China's Rise and the New Age of Gold: How Investors Can Profit from a Changing World

16

The Unproductive Financial Sector

MY FIRST FORAY into investing came in the 1960s when I was in college. I had bought shares in a technology company called Informatics. To track its progress, I’d check the financial pages each morning. I wasn’t aiming for a quick profit. My thought was to hold onto the shares at least until I graduated. I also had some idea that by supporting an innovative company with a lot of potential, I was contributing in some small way to the good of the country. We were in the midst of the postwar bull market that had begun in mid-1949, and I ended up doing pretty well.

Back then, many Americans participated in the market with the same notion of doing good—supporting the economy—while doing well. Of course, some ...