Does Capitalism thrive on Main Street or Wall Street?

[Kirkland Laing]

Main Street. Wall Street does nothing constructive as far as economic growth is concerned. Literally nothing. I've spent my entire life working on Wall Street and its British equivalent and I've never done a single day's constructive work in my life. Wall Street is actually a massive drag on the real economy as we skim the entire system, legally rob Main Street businesses and just generally leach huge amounts of money out of the real economy that could be used for investment and growth into our own pockets. And cause periodic economic meltdowns which impoverish millions while redistributing vast amounts of money out of the pockets of the 99% upwards into the pockets of a couple of thousand blokes.

Send the Marines down to Wall Street, arrest everybody wearing a suit on the top floor of all the major banks' office buildings and execute them and it would be the single best economic policy move you could make.

[SlimTrae]

Main Street. Wall Street does nothing constructive as far as economic growth is concerned. Literally nothing. I've spent my entire life working on Wall Street and its British equivalent and I've never done a single day's constructive work in my life. Wall Street is actually a massive drag on the real economy as we skim the entire system, legally rob Main Street businesses and just generally leach huge amounts of money out of the real economy that could be used for investment and growth into our own pockets. And cause periodic economic meltdowns which impoverish millions while redistributing vast amounts of money out of the pockets of the 99% upwards into the pockets of a couple of thousand blokes.

Send the Marines down to Wall Street, arrest everybody wearing a suit on the top floor of all the major banks' office buildings and execute them and it would be the single best economic policy move you could make.

What is your take when some people say...oh those politicians all have friends in Wall Street. Is it an accusation of the politician on the take for self? Or is it looking the other way when regulations are brought up in senate/congress...so that their pal corporations can benefit?


Best case in point: Hillary Clinton has friends in Wall Street. What are they implying from your perspective..and how that hurts Main Street.

I admit I am not versed at all in such a subject, I can only hope you can see what I am trying to ask.

[walrus]

Slim you do have stocks. Do you have a 401k or pension plan at work. It's in the market. I think Kirk has some points but I don't think Wall Street is an inherently evil thing. But what do we do, leave all our money in CD making 1% or savings accounts making 0.

[walrus]

I always liked what Bernie madoff said about Wall Street. When he got caught and was charged with running the biggest Ponzi scheme in history he said ya I ran the biggest Ponzi scheme in history in the largest Ponzi scheme on the planet, ah the Bernie was funny, I miss him. Just for pointing that out we should drop all charges and let him go.

[Gandalf]

Printing money from nothing and then printing more money based upon the debt that you issue and giving all of the benefits to your rich banker cronies who extract and extract and extract is not exactly capitalism. I call that bullshit.

Capitalism is where you buy and sell things that people need. Wall Street has nothing to do with capitalism and going on the bail outs they have had over the past century they would likely agree. It's cronyism.

[Kirkland Laing]

Printing money from nothing and then printing more money based upon the debt that you issue and giving all of the benefits to your rich banker cronies who extract and extract and extract is not exactly capitalism. I call that bullshit.

Capitalism is where you buy and sell things that people need. Wall Street has nothing to do with capitalism and going on the bail outs they have had over the past century they would likely agree. It's cronyism.

Printing money from nothing and lending it out to make a profit -- banking -- is fine. Banking is a necessary thing. Bankers are credit intermediaries. They match borrowers and savers and mean all the capital created by an economy is put to its most productive use.

And there's a case for a well regulated stock exchange where people can invest in shares and even a derivatives market where firms and individuals can hedge risk and plan future costs effectively, insure against losses and so on.

Those things are all good. It's just when we use all the money we make to capture regulators and legislators and that's when things start to go wrong. A well-regulated noncorrupt financial system, great, a big plus for society. What we have now, not so good.

[Gandalf]

Printing money from nothing and then printing more money based upon the debt that you issue and giving all of the benefits to your rich banker cronies who extract and extract and extract is not exactly capitalism. I call that bullshit.

Capitalism is where you buy and sell things that people need. Wall Street has nothing to do with capitalism and going on the bail outs they have had over the past century they would likely agree. It's cronyism.

Printing money from nothing and lending it out to make a profit -- banking -- is fine. Banking is a necessary thing. Bankers are credit intermediaries. They match borrowers and savers and mean all the capital created by an economy is put to its most productive use.

And there's a case for a well regulated stock exchange where people can invest in shares and even a derivatives market where firms and individuals can hedge risk and plan future costs effectively, insure against losses and so on.

Those things are all good. It's just when we use all the money we make to capture regulators and legislators and that's when things start to go wrong. A well-regulated noncorrupt financial system, great, a big plus for society. What we have now, not so good.

Boom and bust cycles are the consequence of fractional reserve banking. Money created from nothing means the dollar has devalued 98% in a hundred years. The non stop printing creates the distortions seen in the cost of property.It is a ponzi scheme.

There is nothing wrong with lending as long as it correlates with deposits, but this does not happen. Money backed by nothing is the root of all that has gone wrong.

All financial trickery is immoral and ultimately harmful to all except the parasite.

[Kirkland Laing]

Slim you do have stocks. Do you have a 401k or pension plan at work. It's in the market. I think Kirk has some points but I don't think Wall Street is an inherently evil thing. But what do we do, leave all our money in CD making 1% or savings accounts making 0.

Yes we are. Yes we fucking are.You've got no idea matey.

[El Kabong]

Matt Taibbi is a hack who is riding on his father's coattails...not that I'm bothering to read the article you posted or that I'm disagreeing with it, it's just Taibbi is a whiny little bitch and I thoroughly dislike him, can't wait until he falls from grace, that'll be one I celebrate and it'll happen soon enough....The Rolling Stone, I'd rather have a kidney stone than read that horseshit



Capitalism is something that in it's purest form is good for all parties involved. Some have more money to play with, some know better people to trust, some know really shitty people and some aren't educated in how to best grow or utilize their assets.

[SlimTrae]

Matt Taibbi is a hack who is riding on his father's coattails...not that I'm bothering to read the article you posted or that I'm disagreeing with it, it's just Taibbi is a whiny little bitch and I thoroughly dislike him, can't wait until he falls from grace, that'll be one I celebrate and it'll happen soon enough....The Rolling Stone, I'd rather have a kidney stone than read that horseshit



Capitalism is something that in it's purest form is good for all parties involved. Some have more money to play with, some know better people to trust, some know really shitty people and some aren't educated in how to best grow or utilize their assets.

Okay ..Matt is a trick?
Serious...
Capitalism is something that in it's purest form ..

Is it pure now? Diluted...how does it happen, can something no longer pure return?
No wrong answer, just attempting to learn how wall street is considered so corrupt, yet maintains the street to success.
At least stock wise...
Brock. ..make sure you enter with the Benny Hill theme... It fits so well.

[El Kabong]

Okay ..Matt is a trick?
Serious...
Capitalism is something that in it's purest form ..

Is it pure now? Diluted...how does it happen, can something no longer pure return?
No wrong answer, just attempting to learn how wall street is considered so corrupt, yet maintains the street to success.
At least stock wise...
Brock. ..make sure you enter with the Benny Hill theme... It fits so well.

Matt Taibbi is horrible, he's a spoiled brat riding Daddy's coattails into the world of "journalism", can hardly call 'Rolling Stone' relevant these days in regards to politics, economics, OR what they were originally founded to cover...music.



Capitalism in ANY form still beats the pants off of literally ANY other system. What do you want to replace it with? Communism/Socialism? We see how great those work out for the poor and less fortunate....just creates MORE of them. Capitalism CAN have winners and losers but it can also have symbiosis in which both the buyer and seller come out feeling like a good deal has been struck and to be quite honest that happens more on the small scale than it does on the large scale. A young kid goes and cuts his neighbor's grass, the neighbor pays....the kid earns some cash, the homeowner doesn't have to fuck with the yard that week that is WIN-WIN Capitalism.....don't have to worry about that in Communist countries....who owns a house much less a lawnmower?

There's a reason this little joke resonated....

it's because it's true.

But I'm sorry, you were decrying how horrible and diluted Capitalism is?

[Kirkland Laing]

Matt Taibbi is a hack who is riding on his father's coattails...not that I'm bothering to read the article you posted or that I'm disagreeing with it, it's just Taibbi is a whiny little bitch and I thoroughly dislike him, can't wait until he falls from grace, that'll be one I celebrate and it'll happen soon enough....The Rolling Stone, I'd rather have a kidney stone than read that horseshit



Capitalism is something that in it's purest form is good for all parties involved. Some have more money to play with, some know better people to trust, some know really shitty people and some aren't educated in how to best grow or utilize their assets.

You just keep on keeping on Lyle. You wouldn't be you if you didn't go through life being completely ignorant and always wrong about everything.

[walrus]

Slim you do have stocks. Do you have a 401k or pension plan at work. It's in the market. I think Kirk has some points but I don't think Wall Street is an inherently evil thing. But what do we do, leave all our money in CD making 1% or savings accounts making 0.

Yes we are. Yes we fucking are.You've got no idea matey.

You might be surprised what I know. I know you are an utter cunt

[Kirkland Laing]

Slim you do have stocks. Do you have a 401k or pension plan at work. It's in the market. I think Kirk has some points but I don't think Wall Street is an inherently evil thing. But what do we do, leave all our money in CD making 1% or savings accounts making 0.

Yes we are. Yes we fucking are.You've got no idea matey.

You might be surprised what I know. I know you are an utter cunt

I am an utter cunt and so are all the other people who do what I do. You should not be in favour of less regulation and oversight over what we do. If you don't have it nailed down we'll have it away. Don't say I didn't warn you.

[Kirkland Laing]

Main Street. Wall Street does nothing constructive as far as economic growth is concerned. Literally nothing. I've spent my entire life working on Wall Street and its British equivalent and I've never done a single day's constructive work in my life. Wall Street is actually a massive drag on the real economy as we skim the entire system, legally rob Main Street businesses and just generally leach huge amounts of money out of the real economy that could be used for investment and growth into our own pockets. And cause periodic economic meltdowns which impoverish millions while redistributing vast amounts of money out of the pockets of the 99% upwards into the pockets of a couple of thousand blokes.

Send the Marines down to Wall Street, arrest everybody wearing a suit on the top floor of all the major banks' office buildings and execute them and it would be the single best economic policy move you could make.

What is your take when some people say...oh those politicians all have friends in Wall Street. Is it an accusation of the politician on the take for self? Or is it looking the other way when regulations are brought up in senate/congress...so that their pal corporations can benefit?


Best case in point: Hillary Clinton has friends in Wall Street. What are they implying from your perspective..and how that hurts Main Street.

I admit I am not versed at all in such a subject, I can only hope you can see what I am trying to ask.

I could write a book on this one. Let me give you an article to read. This guy has a great writing style and he writes very readable articles, he can make financial stuff sound very entertaining. But you'll read it and think to yourself this is great but it's obviously an over the top hyperbolic style of writing and probably not all true. Let me tell you this is word for word true and only gives a rough outline of the rampant criminality on Wall Street, how we completely own the politicians and the regulators and so on. It's a long article but you could all do worse than read it to give you an idea of how things are. I will have much more to add to this article and any replies from you lot later on.

Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? - Rolling Stone