Larger Lessons Loom in Psychic Investment Manager Suit

Bernie Madoff he is not. Even if he never reaches the same level of infamy as his colleague in crime, however, Sean David Morton does have the benefit of a more amusing story, at least for those not tangled in his web of deceit.  As The New York Times reports, Morton has found himself in an unenviable position, facing a lawsuit as a result of shady investment propositions and tactics. One might wonder what could be so amusing about a scheme that was always guaranteed to lose innocent people money. The answer becomes apparent almost immediately upon reading the Times piece. You see, Morton, or 'America's Prophet,' based his investment strategies on his abilities to time travel and foretell the future.

Sadly, the story also provides uncomfortable insights into the sophistication, or perhaps more appropriately lack thereof, of the American investor. Despite claims of links to the Dalai Lama and investing Nepalese monks, time travel and aliens as well as a company named Magic Eight Ball, Morton managed to accumulate around $4 million in investor contributions, and published a newsletter with a subscribership of over 20,000. Stories like this make one wonder, especially in an investing and consuming environment such as the current, whether people will ever truly be able to learn from mistakes and avoid situations that are destined to end in ruin.

Pondering the answer to this question, situations such as the housing crisis come to mind. Another would be credit card repayment terms. Though less voodoo and more numerical in nature, consumers' general lack of understanding when it comes to the workings of the financial world is troublesome at best, and disastrous at worst. Current times are emblematic of the latter scenario. Sadly, from snake-oil to get rich quick schemes people have always been succeptible to outrageous claims of easy fixes. More sadly, it doesn't seem that the future is any brighter. Though there are lessons buried in stories such as Morton's, if the past serves as precedent, they will most likely go unlearned.