Wall Street is no longer what it once was and professes to be: A place that helps aggregate capital so that business can begin and expand - a service of great benefit to society. No, with 70% of the trading done by computer/algorithm there is no longer any "service" - just an ongoing Tony Soprano style extortion. These systems are not making the markets more efficient, not even a little bit. They are nothing but a "Tribute" collection point. Every $ these guys make in this fashion come DIRECTLY out the pocket of the Investing Public. This required no great expertise, technological breakthrough, no wonder drug... just a "Work Permit" from one of the "Right" universities and the POLITICAL LICENSE that comes with being a member of the elite - and POOF! The money comes rolling in, one "tic" at a time, BILLIONS and BILLIONS of times.
Admittedly, I run a fund and speculate in the markets. That's right - SPECULATE. I win some, and I lose some, and in doing so folks like me provide a price mechanism and liquidity - particularly in the commodity markets - that allow producers to sell the product forward, giving them the incentive to produce NOW. Goldman et al do NOT win some and lose some. They ONLY WIN, because they are the HOUSE, and they and their ilk (Goldman, Harvard & Co., JP Morgan, the U.S. Treasury (but I repeat myself, I already said Goldman) are so convinced of their superiority and so arrogant as to regard themselves doing "God's Work".
As Mark Rubio, Republican candidate for Florida's Governor said so succinctly:
Those people that went to the right schools believe we need a guardian class to tell us what to do.Amen.
Now they tell us they are doing us a favor by skimming a piece off of 70% of the trades occurring in the market place. Well-Gee-F*&^ing-Thanks.
BTW, Mr. Rubio, you are from Florida. According to the President (look at his appointment for the Supreme Court), Goldman (look where they recruit), and the rest of the Northeastern political establishment there are NO SMART PEOPLE in Florida, the South, the Midwest, or the West. None, Zero, Zip, Nada, Ugatz, Bupkiss. 303 MILION Americans, but the only people smart enough to serve on the High Court or work at Goldman Sachs comprise a yearly graduate pool of perhaps 7,000 people. Guess how many 150 + IQ people there are in a population of 300,000,000? MILLIONS. Are all 7,000 members of the aforementioned pool ALL 150+ in the IQ department? Doubtful.
Thanks G-d for the Bolgsphere. History, and political reporting, is written by the folks with the pens... and in our case that WAS the liberal Main-Stream-Media. It was the Blogsphere that collapsed their strangle hold, but not without a fight - witness a N.J. Court's ruling that Bloggers are NOT journalists. Really? WTF??!!
The Elite ruling establishment isn't going without a fight, but in the end there just isn't that much they can do about it. The internet let the shaving cream out of the can - even these Drek cannot stuff it back in.