4. Greedy:
Yes, "greed is still good" " for Wall
Street's gamblers
Michael
Douglas' famous indictment is truer today than ever. Vanguard's founder Jack Bogle confronted the
toxicity of out-of-control greed in his book, "Battle for the Soul of
Capitalism." Wall Street has become a soulless, amoral culture that cares nothing
about the rest of America. Wall
Street has sunk back, deep into their business-as-usual culture of greed, fully
blind to the public consequences of their behavior. Ethics? Integrity? Fiduciary duty? It doesn't exist. Investors come second. Insiders first. Always.
And nothing will change till Wall Street hits bottom, crashes. Then and only then can we truly reform Wall
Street, as we did in the 1930s.
5. Compulsive
liars: Never trust Wall Street to
tell the truth
Members of
AA use a simple test: "How can you
tell when an alcoholic or addict's lying?" Answer:
"His lips are moving." Similarly, you can't believe anything said on
Wall Street. Why this culture of lying? Simple:
To create illusions, like "investors
come first," "you can trust us," and "we have the best interests of America at
heart." All wrong. Their only loyalty is to insiders. Period.
6. Insatiable:
Wall Street's hooked on "more is never
enough'
Wall Street
is past the point of no return; it's an addict incapable of stopping, and so
it must hit bottom. In his book,
American Mania, psychiatrist
Peter Whybrow says we're a nation of
addicts, we're insatiable, and that "more is never enough." To wit: Trillions in new debt annually, immense bonuses,
zero savings, as bank bailouts roll on, with the Fed forever feeding Wall
Street cheap money.
Forget
reforms: There will be no change till the banks hit
bottom. A return to Glass-Steagall might
help, but Wall Street hates that as much as addicts hate the thought of ending
up at the Betty Ford Clinic, and since Wall Street owns Congress, there will be no return of anything like Glass-Steagall -- until after the crash.
7. Macho-macho:
Regardless of the facts, Wall Street
can't admit failure
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