My Feng Shui Forecast: Let's Go to Disney World

By Dian Vujovich

On the front page of The Wall Street Journal today, a story about feng shui and investing caught my eye. Forget Nancy Reagan and the astrology advice she and our 40th President listened to. That’s so yesterday. Today, it’s feng shui and one master of this 5000-year-old “wind and water” practice (that’s what feng shui means) suggested not investing into our markets until after next January.

Feng shui is all about promoting prosperity, good health, well-being and the positioning of things like a building, a garden, your furniture or a mirror in a room. Masters of this practice base their principles around the flow of energy, or qi (pronounced “chee”).

Apparently, the energy flows of our markets right now aren’t exactly qi-full, pronounced “chee-full”. Okay, I made that word up and it’s probably a bad joke but you’ve got to admit it made you smile.

Anyhow, in the piece titled, “Some See a Rat in the Year of the Ox For Investors Seeking Advice”, the 170 or so investors from ABN AMBRO Private Banking, all with net worth’s of $1 million or more, had come to listen to Alion Yeo’s views about the market. Yeo’s a feng shui master.

When asked to comment about the fact that President Obama and his Treasury Secretary were both born in the Year of the Ox (that would be those born in 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997 and 2009), the paper wrote this regarding Mr. Yeo’s answer:

“Yes. The pair of oxen in charge of the U.S. economy could be an accident waiting to happen. Hold out until after January 2010 before investing in the U.S.”

That’s not so bad, I guess. But I didn’t much like reading Yeo’s warning about a “financial terrorist attack” between June 6 and July 7, however. We don’t need any more of those. Nor, did I think the idea to send President Obama a Mickey Mouse hat to help him balance out any bad Ox stuff that may be going on. But when uncertainly about everyone’s financial future has most in the world troubled, advice from everywhere gets heard.

But back to that Mickey Mouse hat idea. Now that I think about it maybe going to Disney World is just the ticket we all need. Bruce Springsteen said that’s what he was going to do at the end of his performance at the Super Bowl last week—and we all know he’s The Boss. Big time athletes do it. Why not all of us?

After all, it would get us spending again. And smiling. A lot. (Disney World isn’t an inexpensive holiday if you’ve never been but it’s also one happy place.) And if wearing a Mickey beanie would makes things better for the Ox and Wall Street’s bulls, I’m all for it.