The NASDAQ Conspiracy

Did Pine Hollow Gamble Its Future on Wall Street?

Town Budget

Risk (Mis)Management

For years, Pine Hollow has prided itself on careful financial management—at least, that’s what our fearless leaders would have you believe. But whispers around town tell a different story, one that points to a shocking gamble: that the entire town budget was secretly funneled into a NASDAQ ETF.

A confidential source claims to have identified discrepancies in public budget reports. Funds earmarked for infrastructure projects have mysteriously vanished, maintenance on public buildings has slowed to a crawl, and city employees are quietly grumbling about late paychecks.

Did Mayor Duvall (or someone in his orbit) use taxpayer money to make a high stakes bet on the entire future of our community? When asked directly at a recent town hall, City Manager Nora Young simply stated, "The town's finances are being handled appropriatey." Not exactly an outright denial.

Why the Fuss?

As of the writing of this post, October 18, 1999, the NASDAQ is up 21.8 percent year-to-date. That's not too shabby. So even if this rumor is true, why the fuss?

Sure, the markets been having some good days of late. But what goes up must come down. In fact, in the last week alone the overall market has contracted 7.8%.

And there are reasons to believe this dot-com craze is going to come crashing down. Some call me bubble boy, but everybody and their mother has a website these days (just take me for example). And I for one don't want to bet our town's future on the dang Pets.com puppet.

What if its True?

If Pine Hollow's money really was dumped into the NASDAQ, we could be one bad market day away from financial ruin. And if the money's gone, who's holding the bag?

Without cold hard proof, this remains just another town rumor. But if history has taught us antyhing, where there's smoke—there's usually fire.