Some of those names already sound to us like nationalised bankruptcies, such as Dexia or Lloyds. Could it be that, because of their precarious situation, they recommended investing in the stock market when the world was already in tatters? I’m afraid not. Their recommendations – and those of everyone else – were always geared towards profit-making, regardless of stock market cycles. Some organisations have gone down fighting, even though the State brings them back to life on the third day; but what’s more, the rest continue to fire at will. They’ll never learn, neither the financiers nor the speculators. Well, these last ones have certainly learnt their lesson: 
Losing out. But they will soon forget their mistakes and return to the arms of those who have squandered their wealth. Whether it is the power of their ties, the pompous air of the institutions, or even the greying temples of some of them who are merely awaiting early retirement, the reality is that any banker enjoys enormous, surprising and outrageous credibility amongst their clients. Even from those long-suffering clients who are saddled with very substantial losses through the bankers’ fault, in a paradoxical Syndrome in Stockholm Finance.
The recommendations made by these eight financial institutions are like eight doctors prescribing, via the press, various very expensive slimming pills (commissions and brokerage fees generated by the asset allocation of the eight institutions), which not only fail to help people lose weight but have actually caused ALL users to put on a great many kilos. Furthermore, the side effects of these extra kilos are incalculable (ranging from a loss of savings for old age, to a drastic change in the family’s standard of living, to depression at having squandered, in just seven weeks, much of a lifetime’s hard work). However, these «medical professionals» They continue to prescribe investment strategies on a daily basis which, whether they prove successful or not, have only one clear and inescapable objective: to generate commission for the firm. Proof of this is that Not even in the height of August, when the outlook and the current situation were already looking very bleak, did any of the organisations consulted recommend staying out of the markets. It’s true that everyone recommended being in moderate liquidity, but through money market funds and bonds, both of which incur fees and brokerage charges that drive returns significantly below 5%!!! The exception – albeit a rather dubious one – was once again provided by Atlas Capital, which recommended a 50%, just a 50%, of the total volume in the form of pure deposits, offering a better return and little or no commission for the institution in question.
In the current dire situation, maintaining liquidity at 1.5 or 2% above monetary policy rates – or short-term bonds (which significantly increase the burden of their brokerage fees) – is the difference between a good strategy and a bad one. Given the current state of affairs (and as is always the case), is the difference between an honest and a dishonest professional recommendation. Furthermore, we must deduct the losses incurred by the ‘RV butchers’, which have meant that, for the most part, they have not abandoned the markets due to their eagerness to collect stock market commissions, including their eagerness to collect success fees and their endless variations. The result: Devastating.
Perhaps some people will learn the hard way for a while, but their memory will still be very short.
P.S. Once again, *Expansión* published an article on 1 November (a terrifying day) an article (a terrifying one, too) by M. Martínez, in which he argues that, due to falling share prices of listed companies, their dividends are more attractive than bank deposits – and even more so when compared with sovereign fixed-income securities. Of course, the sources cited all have vested interests in asset management firms that thrive on the commissions generated by stock market investors. Our madness has reached such extremes that one can now confuse the risk of fixed-income investments and bank deposits with that of equities and publish it in a prestigious newspaper such as *Expansión*… Unabashedly peddling the residual dividends from our recent past of a bubbling boom, whilst we are in the midst of being engulfed by the perfect storm, which will swallow up not only the dividends of these listed companies but the companies themselves, whole and unchewed. ¡Leave, Ladies and gentlemen, a boring deposit at 6% – go and buy me that «Dividendus» hair growth treatment…! Keep it coming, it’s war!… We’re in a really, really bad way.
The number of wrongdoers does not justify the crime.The worst thing the bad guys do is make us doubt the good guys.
Jacinto Benavente (1866–1954)