The Biggest Scam In America

The myth in this country has been that investing in the stock market is a safe and sure way of turning a little bit of money into a lot of money -- especially if you invest for the long-term.   The brokers will tell investors that while the market goes up and down, there is always a profit in the long-run.   That may be true for the rich insiders on Wall Street, but it is not true for the small investors on Main Street (as evidenced by the disasters of 1929 and 2007 -- where millions of investors lost trillions of dollars almost overnight).

Those small investors are still hurting, but the rich and the giant banks and brokerages are once again happily trading up a new stock market bubble (after being bailed out by the taxpayers).   The market is again going up and the Wall Street workers are enjoying record-breaking bonuses.   And once again the brokers and bankers are trying to sell the myth of the market always going up in the long-run.  

They're trying to sell this myth because they need new victims.   The financial wolves need a lot of new lambs to invest, because it is a no-win situation for the wolves to just go after each other.   There is a saying that in the gambling casinos the only real winner is the House.   It is the same with Wall Street.   The only real winners are the rich insiders (since they know the game and know when to get out) and the small investors are little more than sheep waiting to get fleeced.

The fact is that for the small investor, Wall Street is the biggest scam in America (and it's rigged to favor the rich insiders).   There is an excellent post over on Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot - over.   This blogger lays out the case of why Wall Street is just for suckers.   I though it was excellent so I am reposting much of it here for your edification:

"Think it is safe to get back to investing in stocks and bonds?? That's Wall Street's game, and when Wall Street plays games the only winner is Wall Street. Don't ever forget that the Great Recession which we are slowly climbing back out of right now was a creation of Wall Street banks and their self-dealing.


But it's still a good idea to buy stocks in the long run. They have on average gone up faster than bonds, right? According to Wall Street Jurnal's Paul B. Farrell that has not happened in the last two business cycles. That's because the hedge funds, Wall Street banks and wealthy investors have sucked all the profit out of stocks before the average investor can possibly buy them.

Paul Farrell offers this advice to investors. Stocks are a sucker's bet being offered by Wall Street.

1. American stocks are a high-risj sucker bet.(America’s divided into two stock markets: one for Wall Street’s rich insiders, another for Main Street’s suckers: “Investors, as opposed to traders, buy stocks in companies whose profits they expect to rise. The conventional wisdom says stock prices will follow profits up, but over the last two business cycles, that simply has not happened.” ) Main street has figured out they are the suckers that the Wall Street bankers are fleecing. They aren't going back into the markets any time soon.
2. New ‘big short’ dead ahead: Derivatives con game will crash again (Wall Street’s sneaky and will do anything to keep the derivatives casino running hot. Insiders “have no intention of ceasing their prop trading,” according to Lewis. “They are merely disguising the activity, by giving it some other name.) The derivitive game is goning to crash again.
3. Hedge funds shorting China: Warning — U.S. faces collateral damage (China may well crash first. Fortune’s Bill Powell interviewed hedge-fund kingpin Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates, who’s “betting that China’s economy is about to implode in a spectacular real estate bust.” China is “an economy on steroids.” In a Charlie Rose interview, Chanos said “China’s on an economic treadmill to hell.” If so, then all of Wall Street’s highly promoted emerging markets are also sucker bets. )
4. New insider-trading indictments killing Main Street confidence (Investor distrust of Wall Street’s casino will skyrocket in 2011. Before the elections in November, an AP-CNBC poll found 61% of investors had already lost confidence in the market, thanks to extreme volatility; 55% believe the market’s rigged to favor insiders. )
5. Banksters’ perfect gambling record proves stocks a rigged game (Morici says “J.P. Morgan and Bank of America went through the entire third quarter without a negative trading day, no losing days on proprietary trades. Unless you believe in perfection, something stinks about the information they are using. If someone is winning all the time, then someone else is losing. That’s the ordinary investor. Stocks have become a rigged game.)
6. Wall Street is socially worthless, existing only to make insiders rich (John Cassidy writes: “Much of what investment bankers do is socially worthless.” Wall Street exists solely “to make itself very, very rich.” )
7. The Fed is America’s worst nightmare, a $3.3 trillion moral hazard (Moral hazard simply means no consequences for Wall Street’s complicity in triggering the 2008 catastrophe. As a result, Wall Street insiders came away believing they can take bigger and riskier bets in the future because they will get away with it next time, too. )
8. Wake up to a new normal: no growth, deflation (economist Gary Shilling, a longtime Forbes columnist, warns: “Real economic growth rates of 2% or less are likely through 2011.” But we need 3.3% just to keep up with population growth.
   
   So “high unemployment remains a political problem … with weak economic growth, looming deflation, and the dollar and Treasurys remaining the safe havens in a sea of global trouble.”
   
   Warning: America’s new era, featuring no growth, deflation and a jobless recovery, will continue for years, resembling Japan over the past two decades. Worse, brutal deficit cuts will trigger riots, as in England, France. )
9. Privatize Social Security: New GOP Congress loves dumb ideas. (Wall Street wants to get its hands on $20 trillion of your retirement money to lose in the next crash they create.)
10. Warning: Wall Street will lose another 20% of your money by 2020.

The fact is the FBI investigation shows that the entire stock buying game is as rigged as your local checking cashing or payday loan outlet. Probably more than your local loan shark. Buy stocks now and you will be fleeced.

Why is Wall street permitted to run such crooked markets? Because Wall Street belongs to the ultra-wealthy, and so does the Republican Party. The wealthy do nothing for the American economy except work to suck it dry so that they can invest the funds they steal in foreign countries where the return on investment is much higher. They are happily foreclosing on homes they don't even own. Would you buy financial products from someone this crooked or careless? You shouldn't."