Crooks leading leads to crooks operating leads to crooks trying to make fast $$$ before they’re noticed leads to financial instability leads to the average investor being screwed. Bottom line, BUY LOW, SELL HIGH! Not the reverse…

Right — and McCain says the economy (which he admits he knows little about) is doing fine. Vote for him and get four more years of the same, if the country can last four more years!

What I believe is happening here is proof that an economics model is failed. In order for free trade to work, there has to be rules set in place; otherwise, it hurts both Wall Street and our street. For too long, there has been a habit of opacity, money juggling and not investing capital into these acquistions, and manipulating oversight commiteess , and so they are caving in under their own weight. We are going to have to take supply side economics, dissect it, save the good parts and reject the antiquated parts, remembering that the purpose of investments is not only for the shareholders, but to make this country prosper for the Greater Good. That is the purpose of rules. There’s nothing wrong with being rich, filthy rich if you work hard enough, but for gods sake, you simply cannot do it on the backs of the rest of us. I believe strongly that every time there is some sort of disater, be it personal or public, that there are lessons to be learned and that there is always The Law Of Unintended Consequences. We are watching that law at work at this very moment. Hopefully, it will also work when we can unite ourselves with a common purpose and design our economic model to fit today’s world, and to enforce honesty. http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/28/mccain-adviser-phil-gramm-shaped-mcc…

The crash of 1929 resulted in a law making it illegal to ‘borrow’ money inorder to invest in the stock market. Even when I opened my trading account, I had to check a box, that said I was using my own money, and that it was not ‘borrowed’ money. Some lessons need to be learned more than once, apparently. This market is a mess. Corruption is everywhere. Greed has ecome King, and at the expense of the average person, as you have pointed out, Diana. I urge those seriously interested in pushing for reform, to read over the Deep Capture story regarding Overstock.com. The corruption and collusion is so deep, that if someone seeks ‘discovery’ and transparency, those such as Phil Graham and the CEO’s that seem to be running our country, have created all sorts of ‘rules’ and ‘law’, preventing investigation on the Federal Level. In other words, one must work through a State court, inorder to get full transparency on who did what—-which is what Byrne did, so that he could prove his case. There are laws against selling what does not belong to you. In most of the world, one would go to jail. In the US stockmarket, it is a common practice. There are laws against fraud in most of the world. In the US markets fraud is rampant, and that is why small towns in Norway can go bankrupt, as a result of the fraud, yet be told “it’s not my problem” by the very person who sold the investment package to that town. Fraud used to be a crime. There are laws and rules regarding oversight of the Stock Markets. The SEC is responsible for enforcing those laws and rules. This past two years, instead of enforcing those rules, the SEC has fired those who question the lack of oversight. We have a good ‘ol boy system, that has very little regard for the citizen of America. Had Bush been able to force transfer of Social Security benefits to the stock market, there would be even a bigger disaster than there is today. Thank goodness he was unsuccessful.

Hank Greenberg has offered to help save his old company, AIG, and they REJECTED his offer of money! Just out on CNBC. What would be the motive, for AIG, to reject a no-strings offer of assistance to keep the company above water? What is it, that AIG does not want known, that they are willing to put the whole country and other parts of the world at risk?