WALL STREET SCAM
An Object Lesson in Investing

An AlterNet essay on how the stock market favors the big boys at the expense of average investor guys:

The moral, of course, is that free markets be damned, if people can make off with your money, you can be damn sure that they will – unless someone stops them. We have the best regulators in the world, of course. The NYSE checks the listings; the SEC monitors the company filings; independent auditors keep tabs on the books; and a board elected by the shareholders scrutinizes the company strategy. All of these men and women, each dedicated to a single end: the welfare of the shareholders. Right?

Let's see. The National Association of Securities Dealers keeps most of its judgments against its member's secret, so you have no idea if the nice broker trying to sell you a parcel of Enron has a "record." The New York Stock Exchange is part of the problem and not the solution, as its new chairman John Reed has tacitly admitted.

As I have said many times, wealth cannot be trusted to police itself. It seems like riches are a highly addictive drug; one can never have enough: if I have to bludgeon my grandmother to get some more hop, I'm damned sure gonna do it! There's a good reason Jesus said that the rich cannot "inherit the kingdom of Heaven." There's also a good reason that so many American Christians don't give a damn about Jesus' teachings in this realm. They're jonsing for more hop.

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