Let’s play a game called WHAT CITY is this magazine excerpt describing?
“The city’s foreclosure rate hovers at three times the national average… [It] has the highest crime rate and the highest poverty rate of any city in the U.S., and unemployment is soaring. The mayor was recently indicted for lying under oath about an affair with an aide.”
Still need another hint? The article continues: “Even at the auto show, events didn’t come off as planned. Chrysler paraded 120 longhorn cattle in front of the convention center to promote its new Dodge Ram pickup truck, and some of the confused animals started mounting each other.”
Welcome to Detroit, Michigan. Once the world’s headquarters for the entire automobile industry. Now, the very thought of the city seems to put one at risk for depression.
But where there’s risk, there’s opportunity, right?
Seriously, how do wise investors rise to wealth? It’s not because they heard about the next big idea on CNBC or because they read “How to Be a Billionaire.” They’re the ones who end up as the guest stars and best-selling authors. If we want to be innovative investors, we can’t rely on the experts and follow the masses. The real returns will come from finding what no one else is seeing.
No one is seeing anything in Detroit. But let me let you in on a little secret only us hockey, basketball, and Eminem fans seem to know – this city isn’t going anywhere.
I propose we go in now. We can start with the housing market – upscale properties are reportedly being abandoned by the lots.
Just in case I’m wrong though, consider buying some shares of a northern Michigan lumber company – it’s going to take a lot of plywood to keep boarding up those factories and skyscrapers…
Inspired by “Who Will Survive? How to save the U.S. auto industry – if it isn’t too late. A plan that can work for Ford, G.M., and Chrysler.” By Paul Ingrassia. Condé Nast Portfolio. June 2008.
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