This one from July 18th 2008 was written without knowing (for sure) that I was about to be laid off 10 days later. I think I knew something was coming, and as it turns out it was a good thing that it happened. The other problem this isn’t twenty years ago any more, now it is more like 35 years ago.
Today, I celebrate my 20th year at Nortel. When I started 20 years ago, the PC was something new, all computing was being done on Mainframes and the cell phone was only just beginning. Today a complete generation of high-tech gizmo’s have come and gone from when I started working in High Tech and things that were deemed impossible when I was at University, are now common place and easy.
Will I last another year? I have no idea, but that is the joy of working in High Tech, you might go the way of the Atari 800 or the Vic 20, if you aren’t careful!
Twenty Years Ago Financially
Twenty Years ago about now, we’d seen Black Monday the first of many market corrections, and the second biggest single day drop in the history of the stock market (ok that was 21 years ago, but still topical).
In 1988 my salary then is now 25% of what I currently make, which is mind-blowing, except that I haven’t seen a raise in 5 years either, which is a bad thing. The Savings & Loans scandal rocked the U.S. economy (glad to see THAT could never happen again (what IS the font for sarcasm?)). The Solidarity trade union goes on strike for 3 weeks in Poland, with Communism starting to show its first cracks. Free Trade between Canada and the U.S. was brought into law as well (I remember those arguments, what were they about now?).
Some stocks of interest on July 18, 1988 (twenty years ago):
- Nortel was at $19.00 in US trading back then
- Microsoft was at $68.50
- Berkshire Hathaway “A” were about $4350 (US)
- IBM was at $125
- Pfeizer was at $50.50
- CSCO, DELL and RIM were not even listed (heck, RIM hadn’t even been thought of yet).
That summer Canadians got to live through the indignity of the Ben Johnson scandal at the Seoul Olympics too! Luckily 1988 gave you Prozac as well, so you could feel better about things too.
Holy cow, I am an old fart.
