John Y. Brown, III: On the Government Shutdown (Part II)

Why I am not sweating the government shutdown today.

Why not?

Because I have a general tendency to overestimate the impact of external political and economic events on my personal life.

And have learned this the hard way. Which is to say the, well, embarrassing way.

About 9 years ago during the winter months we had a snow storm that caused my work to close down for the day. My son, Johnny, was… about 9 or 10 years old and pleased Dad was getting to stay home for work and wanted me to join him outside to play and sled in the snow. He first asked me around 10 that morning and I responded, “Johnny, I will…but right now the stock market is down over 200 points. I want to see what is happening and monitor a little longer. Give me another hour and check back with me.”

An hour passed and back Johnny came ready for the snow. “Johnny,” I said, “the stock market is now down 300 points and I don’t know what is going on. Can you please give me a little more time and check back around noon?”

Noon came around and in came Johnny. Again. “Dad, how is the stock market going?” I responded, “Johnny, this is awful. The market is now down over 500 points. Unbelievable.”

Johnny paused for a moment and then said, “Why does it matter so much?  Mom just told me we don’t own any stocks.” “Yeah,” I said….”Well, you know…That is ….that may be true. We really don’t own any stocks right now, come to think of it. I, uh. I…it’s just a big ….thing. A national , uh, bad thing. I guess. So, that’s why it matters so much to us, I guess.”

We then went outside and played in the snow. And I didn’t worry about the stock market plummeting the rest of the day.