In the 1940s, when my grandfather bought shares of companies such as General Electric and Alcoa Aluminum, his main goal never involved generating a fortune overnight — only to make sure he had enough income for tomorrow.

You see, my grandfather was a child of a dying generation… A group of people for whom the Great Depression was much more than a chapter or two in the 13th edition of some unmarked high school history book.

Today, most kids in America will learn the basic facts of the Great Depression, but the most valuable piece of knowledge — a realization that’s essential to all Americans today — won’t appear in their textbooks, not even as a footnote.

My grandfather emerged from the Great Depression humbled… His “American Dream” intact, but tempered by the precious wisdom that nothing material in this world is infinite. For every “dream” there also exists the opposite, equally possible, scenario.

That’s what we’re facing today, dear reader. With each passing day, we add $2.43 billion to our record high national debt, and the dollar continues to fall in value, further eroding our already insufficient retirement savings…

What are most Americans doing about it?

They’re consuming even more, even if that means dipping into their savings or taking on debt they’ll never be able to repay.

Why?

Because it has to do with an economic struggle…an innate and uniquely American fear of being left behind (or, even worse, completely left out)… It has to do with an individual’s fight for their particular piece of the proverbial American pie.

Our political icons constantly remind us of achieving the “American Dream” and becoming an “ownership society” as if to say you can do better, achieve more and thus find happiness.

Its roots go back to the great bull market that followed World War II. That glorious economic expansion gave birth to America’s first legitimate middle class…a group of people whose last names were scribbled onto University rosters for the very first time.

Every American family could now have a house with a yard, a new Oldsmobile or even a Cadillac Coup de Ville… The “American Dream” was reborn and recast, unfettered by a cautionary tale not even one generation old.

If you couldn’t keep up with your neighbors, then new companies such as Visa and MasterCard could help you out.

Madison Avenue hit its stride and showed the “Joneses” where to use their new plastic. And here we find ourselves today, back to where my grandfather and his peers found themselves 60 years ago…blindly teetering on the precipice of another American nightmare.

Let’s pay homage to what our grandfathers experienced, and maybe we can avoid a similar fate. If my grandfather were alive, where might he look to find the Alcoas and GEs today?

He’d tell me to beware of U.S. small cap companies dependent on the U.S. consumer. You see, the S&P 500 consists of companies that earn 50% of their sales from overseas; so if their earnings look good, it’s not necessarily because the U.S. economy is good.

If my grandfather were around today, he’d be looking east. He’d find people similar to him…people who save and produce. He’d look to Asia…to Japan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong… That’s where he’d direct my own search to make sure that — no matter what’s happens in the U.S. economy and markets today — I’ll still have the income I need tomorrow.

Until next time,
Christopher Hancock
September 14, 2007

P.S.: What better Asian investment than in their overpopulation? About 60% of the world’s population resides in Asia. They are desperately building places for all these people to live. China alone plans to add another 1,000 skyscrapers to the Shanghai skyline by 2011. There is one growth stock ready to make a fortune from this.

Past Generations’ Investing Strategies was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.