Barbershop investors haven’t cut out
TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: Last October, Marketplace hit the road to find out if the American fallout had set this country on the Road to Ruin. This week, Tess Vigeland and Amy Scott are back on the road checking
in with some of the people they met along the way. Tess has this hair-raising update from Jefferson City, Mo.
Tess Vigeland: Rich McCarty’s been a barber here for more than four decades. Since I last visited in October, business is just a tad off. But McCarty is also a member of an investment club, and that’s where it’s really hurt. So he’s reduced his holdings.
Rich McCarty: I’ve got a few stocks but I’m probably right at 10 percent.
Vigeland: And do you see that changing anytime soon?
McCarty: Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, if it comes, if I feel comfortable, it will all go back into it again.
Bob Snyder is also in McCarty’s club. He’s an information technology contractor for the state. Snyder says the last six months were brutal for the club’s — and his own — investments.
Bob Snyder: We’re down like 50 percent overall, but we’re starting to come back. You know whether we’re at the bottom or not, I don’t know. But it just seems like we’re starting to go the right direction at least.
But both acknowledge that there still may be worse to come. And that’s why in the background of the barbershop, CNBC is on all day long.
In Jefferson City, Mo., I’m Tess Vigeland for Marketplace.
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