10 Dirty Tricks Wall Street Con Artists Will Pull to Keep the Rip-offs Going

via AlterNet:



10 Dirty Tricks Wall Street Con Artists Will Pull to Keep the Rip-offs Going

By Paul B. Farrell, Wall Street Journal. Posted February 22, 2009.

How traders, lobbyists, PR hot shots will try to limit reform and brainwash America.



Yes, America wants an economic recovery. A brand new bull. And nobody wants it more than Wall Street. It gets rich off bull markets. Yes, Warren Buffett may be buying, but the odds are against Wall Street now.

The financial sector's in the tank: Stocks are huge losers. Earnings stink. Bonuses are down. And if they ask for TARP money, CEO salaries get capped, there are no lavish conferences and you fly commercial -- very humbling for a big boss used to making a million bucks a week.

Still, Wall Street wants a new bull more than you do. Why? Bulls breed megapayoffs.

Yes, Wall Street's running a handicap race on a bad playing field, a rotten economy. Yes, the pressure's enormous. But if Wall Street wants to get its hands back in the magic cookie jar soon, it has no choice. It must get super-clever super-fast and jump-start a roaring new bull for the rest of America's 95 million investors, quickly. Get it? Wall Street must deliver a new bull market, fast and soon.

How? By hook or by crook. Whatever pragmatic or Machiavellian power plays work. Why? Wall Street's got huge incentives at the end of this rainbow: Citing Watson Wyatt, the Economist says money management is a golden goose, with $64 trillion managed by professionals at the peak of the last bull. Assuming Wall Street controlled a third for an average 2% fee, there's roughly $400 billion at stake. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/128241/10_dirty_tricks_wall_street_con_artists_will_pull_to_keep_the_rip-offs_going/

They want your money, and you have none.