November 23, 2008 Love, Jobs & 401(k)s By RUTH LA FERLA
ON a good day last summer, Thomas Taccetta, a stock trader, might have checked his financial charts before plotting the day's investments. Today he is likely to check in with his psychic as well. "I'll play the broadest index, the S.&P. 500," Mr. Taccetta said, "and if she tells me she is getting a negative view, I will sell." Since September, when the Dow collapsed, Mr. Taccetta, who trades for his own portfolio in Boca Raton, Fla., has talked with his psychic about once a month, roughly twice as often as a year ago. "There is no rhyme or reason to the way the market is trading," he said. "When conditions are this volatile, consulting a psychic can be as good a strategy as any other." In an era when even Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, changes his mind weekly about how to rescue the United States economy, Mr. Taccetta's decision to seek the advice of a psychic may not seem all that irrational. With Washington flinging pieces of the $700 billion bailout package around, dithering about whom to rescue homeowners? automakers? cousin Fred? a good set of tarot cards might come in handy. "Your mortgage agents, your realtors, your bankers, you can't go to these people anymore," said Tori Hartman, a psychic in Los Angeles. "They're just reading a script at least that's how my clients feel. People are sensing that the traditional avenues have not worked, that all of a sudden this so-called security that they've built up isn't there anymore. They come to a psychic for a different perspective."... Many more men have joined the ranks of seekers. "In the old days men would turn to their wives and ask, `What did that goofball say, honey?' " said Michael Lutins, a New York writer and astrologer. "Now they are raising their heads, interested in matters that were once considered women's stuff." Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/fashion/23psychic.html?ref=fashion http://tinyurl.com/6gfpl8
