My name is not Steven Lagavulin. Lagavulin is the name of my favorite Scotch. When ordering Lagavulin, it's pronounced "la-ga-VUH-lin". But I prefer the more Americanized "la-GAH-ve-lin". I feel it has a more poetic meter.
I'm not using a pseudonym out of any desire to be deceitful; but there are a number of reasons why I've chosen to do so. The primary one is that I was (until recently) an Investment Advisor with a top-10 tier financial firm. I left that position for one more agreeable to me. After fifteen years engaged in an active study and interest in the investing world, I found I could no longer accept responsibility for allocating peoples hard earned (or even easy earned) savings in markets that I believe are stumbling toward a cliff. I left because I couldn't stomach the lying anymore. I couldn't "push the product" when I knew those products were little more than a conglomeration of illusions. The things I felt that people should be doing to secure their future had nothing whatsoever to do with the things that I made a commission on. Not that Financial Consultants or Investment Advisors are any more reprehensible in their duties than people in any other field--they're not. It's the Business that lies. It has to lie--most especially when there are no longer any products to sell. So now I peddle whatever advice I have for free....
However, due to investment industry licensing issues, anything I say--whether it's on a weblog or at a party--is assumed to reflect the official opinion of my firm, even when I am not actively consulting. Therefore I can't say anything under my real name that hasn't been previously approved by my firm's "Compliance" department (that's actually what it's called).
Deconsumption. This is where the developed world is heading, like it or not. The products and resources are dwindling, and the buyers (the Western world) are over-burdened with debt. It's not conjecture, and the script has already been written. The party is over. The Age of Deconsumption is dawning upon us all.
