Monday, August 17, 2009

A disappointing check on the Vice Index

Even long-time NaturalBlog devotees probably don't remember all the way back to February 2007 when I conceived of the "Vice Index," a mutual fund of stocks tailored to people's bad habits. There's the beer-maker Molson-Coors, the winemaker Constellation, Starbucks for your caffeine, MGM for the gambling, Camel cigarette-maker Reynolds, and finally the maker of Trojan condoms (and First Response pregnancy tests), Church & Dwight.

Well, I'm sorry to report the intervening 28 months have not been kind for vice. The value of Vice Index shares is down around 41 percent (compared to a 31 percent loss in the S&P 500 Index in the same period). All of my vice stocks tanked in the recession brought on by recent liberal governing, except for the company that makes condoms.

I guess that tells you all you need to know about how people are weathering the downturn.

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Isaac said...

Solid strategy. I think you went too classy for this recession. Molson-Coors also has Blue Moon, Killian's and Grolsch. You might as well as invested in Stella Artois.

You may have had better luck with Pabst brewing (PBR, Colt 45, Country Club, Old Milwaukee, Schaefer, Schlitz, St. Ides, Stroh's) or Miller (657 Miller varieties, Olde English, MIckey's and Milwaukee's Best).

You have the same problem with Starbucks.

I don't know anything about cigarettes. But I might have suggested venture funding your friendly neighborhood crack dealer instead -- for diversification purposes...

August 18, 2009  

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