Wall Street Versus Capitalism

I like capitalism. I like the idea of choice. I don't believe in free choice. I think choices should be associated with consequences. I think you should learn from your choices, that choices come with responsibilities and consequences. Having said that, I also believe that people should not be given the death penalty for stealing a sandwich when they are going hungry. I also believe that as a nation we should make sure people have certain basic needs even if it means I have to be taxed. I put my money where my mouth is, give to charity and have taken in the homeless. Big banks and Wall Street do not believe in capitalism, they believe in something else. They believe in information manipulation and market manipulation and I want to talk about that.

Wall Street is basically a bunch of ivy league frat boys who have consistently been caught working together to fix rates and markets. Most traders and brokers are just poor dumb fools that either play along to get along or are totally clueless as to how the market is gamed. There is however a group of insiders who get to decide when the game will be played and in what manner. If this were not so then the LIBOR scandal could not have happened. Now I want to explain how they violate the intent of the law.

Lets say I was a purchasing agent for the federal government and I was about to issue a $100 million contract to a defense contractor. Lets say I had my elderly father buy $20,000 in options against the competitors for that contract. In other words I have my father make a bet against all the other competitors for the contract. In this case, once the contract was awarded, my dear old dad is going to make a lot of money. That is insider trading. Even if the contract award was 100% right, the fact that I used that insider information means the playing field was not even. This is exactly what the banks and traders do everyday. They have inside information and use it to their own benefit at the expense of most investors (not their friends of course). That is a form of capitalism; but, it is not the reason that we created capitalism. I thought the PURPOSE of capitalism was to make sure that those who worked hard and made good bets benefited did well.

IF Wall Street doesn't believe in competition then is it capitalistic or criminalistic? If it believes in competition then why is it constantly involved in insider trading? The game is called front trading and I will explain how it works. Lets say you deposit a check at your bank when it opens at 9 in the morning. The money is transferred to your bank at 9:30. Now, at 4 in the afternoon a check you sent to your landlord is deposited and at 4:30 your bank makes the transfer from your account to your landlords. Everything should be fine, you deposited before the withdrawal was made and your bank actually had the funds before the withdrawal was made. Well, your bank will not "post" your deposit until the following day; but, will show the withdrawal the same day. Because of that they can charge you fees for having been overdrawn, it is an accounting trick, it is not the truth and it is not capitalism. That is what is called front loading.

King World News - Madoff Whistleblower Tells KWN Banks Stealing From Pensions

FOR DECADES the banks and Wall Street have been pushing their losses onto public pension funds while giving their personal friends the benefits, they do this by front loading. And we call this capitalism? Now, these same firms are saying that they should be paid before the pensions are paid in Detroit. THINK ABOUT IT.

It should be apparent that I am in fact feeling better.

I enjoy playing poker and have won a couple of tournaments. Nothing big; but, I have taken out some professionals. I haven't really played much in the past three years; but, I used to play everyday. If I am playing poker and one of the people at the table is marking the deck or palming cards, I would call that cheating and not capitalism. I am more than willing to risk my money in an honest game; but, I hate it when the game is rigged and the games today are rigged. I will explain how.

The terms gambler and gambling are misleading. Gambling means taking a blind risk, gamblers, true professionals always have the advantage and play games where their knowledge of the game will give them an advantage. I spent years playing poker and came away ahead. My game of choice was tournament Texas No Limit Holdem. A great game that rewards skill over the course of time. When I first began playing, you would put in your $100 or whatever and that was all anyone could put in. It was an even playing field, you could be a millionaire; but, the buy in and the amount of chips you got was the same for everyone.

As poker became more popular, the rules for some games started to change. ReBuys became more popular. A Re-buy is where if you lose all your money, you can buy back into the game. We also began to see more and more games that had levels of buy in. You could start with a thousand chips or 2000 chips depending on your initial investment. Let me put this in terms of a running race at the olympics. What if rich countries could pay money to the Olympic committee so that their runners could start 20 feet further in front of the track than the people from poor countries? They actually used to do that in the Olympics, some kings were allowed to compete; but, they had to have an advantage. It reminds me of this scene from a movie.

YouTube - The Dictator Movie - Full 100 Meter Race Extended HD

Capitalism, for me, assumed honesty, it assumes fair dealings. Without enforceable contracts, without some rules, you cannot have capitalism. Instead you have cronyism which is what we currently have. Does capitalism mean that a bank can promise me that I will be able to safely deposit my money with them and that they will give it back to me when I ask for it or that they can make outrageous bets with my money and if they win, they keep the winnings; but, if they lose, I suffer the loss. That is what is going on and has been proven to be going on with public pensions and with most peoples bank accounts.

I voted for Ronald Reagan. I am a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. I am not a libertarian because they don't believe the game should have any rules and for the same reason, I am not an Anarchist. I believe that if we are going to have rules, they should apply to all. I believe that if we are not going to have rules, everybody is free from the rules. That is the problem with the current system, those in charge want the rules to only apply to some of us.