A portrait of the gullible investor, eclipse edition

The eclipse exposes the same foolishness that ruins savers

Staring at the sun without protection is the perfect metaphor for our relationship with money. The same impulse that drives thousands of people to burn their retinas — and left a Ciudadanos politician blind — fuels speculative bubbles and financial scams. Anyone who learns nothing from an eclipse is unlikely to learn anything from an investment brochure.

There is a camp that mocks the spectacle: "future coupon sellers," one analysis calls them. And another that replies that the critics are in no position to lecture anyone, because the very people sneering fall for flat-earthism or World Cup fervor. Foolishness, indeed, knows neither gender nor ideology.

The anecdote of the Ciudadanos politician (a Spanish political party) who lost her sight watching the eclipse is the detail that condenses everything. It is not an isolated case: every mass event leaves behind its collection of suckers. The worrying part is that those same suckers are the ones who later sign 50-year mortgages or invest in cryptocurrencies without reading the terms.

Between the eclipse and the portfolio there is only one difference: the sun takes a few minutes to damage your eyesight, while a bad investment takes a few years to drain your account. But the mental mechanism is identical. And meanwhile, those wearing welding glasses see the light; the rest see spots and call it clairvoyance.