Even financial planners can't predict future

Even financial planners can't predict future
In the financial section of the recent Sunday Globe, Tim Paradis of the Associated Press cites claims by Stuart Ritter, a certified financial planner at T. Rowe Price, that an investor who held onto stocks after the start of January 2001 and did not sell them even during the downturn following Sept. 11, 2001, would have been better off five years later by about 25 percent, compared with someone who shifted from stocks to cash ("Investors may find shifting from stocks to bonds causes more problems than it solves," Oct. 5).

However, "five years later" is not today. Ritter's view is retrospective. What will happen in another five years is anyone's guess.

Michael Good
Chestnut Hill

Circus leader won't admit to downside
Kenneth Feld is an expert at the positive spin ("Feld really has some clowns working for him," Oct. 5).

Mr. Feld touts his Ringling Brothers Circus elephant breeding center, but he would rather go into a cage of hungry tigers than admit that more and more people believe the use of animals in entertainment is wrong.

Jennifer O'Connor
Norfolk, Va.

Interesting article about "going green" at Citizens Bank ("Citizens Bank program gives customers an incentive to go paperless," Oct. 7).I have real doubts that using computers more is really the "green alternative" that most think it is. Computers, PCs, servers, and routers use tons of energy (produced by fossil fuels usually).

I believe that going electronic is just what it is - going electronic. Going electronic will save Citizens huge amounts of dollars; they can lay off more workers (replaced by computers), and perhaps make transactions faster.

It is dubious that it is indeed "green" - it's just cheaper for them and more efficient for THEM - in a phrase, it's probably just corporate green-washing.

Carlton Hastings
Warwick, R.I.