Not since the early 1930's has it been so obvious that Wall Street is completely out of control, and has violated virtually every tenet and rule of modern civilized behavior, all in a quest for unprecedented bonuses, and as usual, driven by unbridled greed.
The latest revelations, coming out daily, are simply so jaw dropping as to be impossible to comprehend. I certainly don't need to comment on them - they stand on their own. Investment banks doing deals where they stuck school districts with toxic investments costing them millions to get out of, where the district received $75K and the bank made a million in fees - undisclosed, of course. And doing these hundreds and hundreds of times. Crookery and fraud, pretty blatant, as business plan.
Toxic paper sold throughout the financial system, now jeopardizing pension funds, and insurance companies, simultaneously shorted by the firm run by the current Treasury secretary - even as it sold the paper to its "best" clients. This is the guy running the Treasury. Paulsen. Not a peep from the press pointing out this, er, questionable ethical behavior.
The SEC again backing away from eliminating the market maker exemption, presumably waiting for the most badly abused companies to be put out of business before acting. Can't have Wall Street lose money and the average investor make it, huh? Or in this case, have Wall Street return a fraction of the money it stole via the sale of nonexistent stock. Nope. Gotta deliberate some more. This has gone from tragedy to farce. The stink of corruption is now so pervasive I don't think anyone even questions it anymore. It is simply a bent regulator doing the bidding of its Wall Street masters. Any doubts have been eliminated by the unprecedented stalling of this simple, basic and sensible change to an exemption that plainly violates the SEC's own rules in Section 36, and which directly damages investors.
I haven't had a lot of time to blog lately, but I can honestly say that if I did, I would be the online equivalent of hoarse. I've been screaming that the train is running off the tracks for years now, and as each dire prediction has come to fruition, my appetite for commenting on this has dwindled. A while ago I warned that anyone still in the market is a fool, as the system is hopelessly bent. Now that counsel appears prescient, as it is apparent that, well, the system is hopelessly bent.
As the OSTK suit rolls forward and discovery draws near, I can only hope that the revelations make it to the DOJ, and that there are still 12 honest men on the jury. I have a feeling that what it will show makes my assessment the tame version.