What can we do to castrate the power of the wealthy to screw the rest of us at regular intervals?

It seems hard to exaggerate the damage the trust fund babies on Wall Street have done to the rest of us, and while they are crying poverty too, I have no doubt that most of the money that was "lost" is in secret off-shore accounts, and that they are making out like bandits even in this decline (the bank mergers are one sign of that).

As John D. Rockefeller said about the stock market, "Buy when they cry and sell when they celebrate," or as Britt Hume said after 9/11, ''You know, the market was down yesterday... my first thought when I heard-just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, Time to buy. ''

While Hume aint one of the uber-rich, he expressed their attitude perfectly: they make money when the economy is a roller coaster, but the problem is, for the poor and middle class, one of the kiddy rides that stays on the flat ground makes a lot more sense.

So how can we stop these super-predators from cannibalizing our country every couple of decades (and eating away at our guts like tapeworms the rest of the time)?

:D

god I wish we could still do this!

seriously, it is the only thing that will hold the power of the rich in check

licenses.

Do not elevate the rights of a corporation above that of an individual.

We could do all of the above; society and future generations would benefit and the wealthy would still live high on the hog.

All their Capitalism has FAILED

that don't depend on the New York financial establishment. Buy local. Eat local. Work local.

All would follow from that.

Capitalists are parasites.

and selling them for more than they're worth.

There should be some inherent reward for coming up with a good idea or better mousetrap, but the reward shouldn't be to the point that you hurt others.

taxing trades comes closest.

We are all the buttboys of the residual income class, those folks who have enough money so they can give it to others and then get it back with a profit.

American business has been reoriented to serving them, hence the rebasing of business decision making onto quarterly financial results.

Business operations can be viewed as a system which can be characterized mathematically. That system of equations can be optimized for short-term profit, or for long-term viability, and towards equitable distribution of rewards, or concentration of them among a small subclass.

Got fired lately ? Blame spineless business 'leaders' who always bend over for the residuals class when push comes to shove.

The residuals pigs are audacious enough to for example threaten a Board that if a company's stock price does not rise, they will become 'activist' shareholders and force business direction to change to produce that result.

On the stock market, equity price has an ever-diminishing relationship to the value of the underlying company. Instead, programmed trading has grown to such an extent that millions are made (or lost) over 5 cent intraday twitches in large holdings of a $5 stock. The 2008 fuel price spike is an example of this; in that case, large-scale investors moved mountains of money out of the real estate market starting in 2004 when they saw it was overinflated, and into energy futures. The result ? Voila, increases in the prices of energy futures. In this case, the investment vehicle has a direct relationship to the price of the underlying commodity, so gas got expensive. But the GOP claim that the gas price spike was an effect of supply not meeting demand was a lie - the price was controlled by demand for energy futures, not demand for energy.

The result of all this has been that price (i.e. a quantity of currency) as a measure of value, of both goods/services and also equities, has become almost meaningless. The housing market is a good example - a house is sold new for $200K. Then it 'appreciates' to $300K in the real estate bubble. Then the bubble bursts and the price of the house drops to $100K. Assume the house is well-maintained throughout. The paint has not become cheaper, the wood has not rotted, the utilities continue to work. Has the house become less valuable ? No. Has it's price dropped ? Yes. Welcome to the wonders of speculation.

Short term. It's good to be da king.

Yes, it's most likely unless you're a member of the residual income class yourself (enjoy this post in that case) that your economic activity serv(ic)es them at least as much as it serves you. Feeling the need for the latest electronic gadgetry, a new car, other luxury items, or simply paying a premium for housing or education ? To the point of assuming debt ? Well, congratulations and keep it up, you're serving the consumer economy, 66% of US GDP, which stays afloat because of cyclic economic activity in the consumer market. For us stupid proles, we only see "do more with less" and an endless stream of advertising designed to cajole us into buying low-quality goods we don't need. All this becomes economically interesting far above us, because each transaction, whether it's buying a large-screen TV or paying interest on a credit card, creates margins which are skimmed off the transactions by layers of middlemen. It's a nice excuse that this level of complexity is necessary to a modern economy; what isn't necessary is the size of the profit margins which are built into pricing.

The west has been operating this way since the trade guilds of the middle ages were incorporated into the social class structures of the old nobilities (i.e. families with government power) and became aristocracy themselves. As someone said once, everyone defends their class interests.

That doesn't mean that the motherfucker can't be burnt down.

To be replaced with a system which reflects that residuals are the tail on the dog, that the only thing that has true value is production, of goods in particular, and services involving long-term value (e.g. setting up a computer network) rendered. People will still be allowed to invest, with an expectation of moderate returns enforced by caps on those returns, but the markets will be regulated in such a way that the demand for business to revolve around return on investment will be a thing of the past.

Or else what ? The system will continue to implode as it is doing now. We don't need to threaten social unrest; it will happen organically - hey, it'll be a market effect, and will "trickle down" to Park Avenue just as to Main Street. The pigs may have the money for better defenses and will take longer to be cut down, but they'll end up dying too. Again, this is not a threat, just an observation.

It used to be that God got blamed for everything, when we were even more ignorant than we are now. Knowing a little more now, we can say instead that the laws of physics, which govern the behavior of an equity just as of heavenly bodies and the weather, don't give a fuck whether you're a rich puling imbecile or a poor one, larger forces than your puny ass will still cut you down without giving a shit for you.

If you're thinking I'm naive, you're probably part of the problem, but also don't care whether you are or not. Just keep it up, we'll see what happens. Pig.

Go and GET those offshore bucks. It's illegal to set up accounts for the purpose of evading taxes after all.

We dont need people like that in the gene pool.Inhumane humans are a threat to our survival as a species.

Your post indicates your own lack of any humanity.

I knew there was a catch.
Then I guess that the idea of Coventry expressed by sci-fi author RH Hienlien would work.Just ship them off to some god forsaken island in the middle of nowhere and let them survive on their own.
After we ship them off then we can get busy doing what it takes to ensure that the human animals greed for money and power can no longer harm humanity as a whole.

their sentence. Strip them (weather permitting) and lock them in stocks for a few hours, then transport them to prison. This includes politicians.

overthrow of another government or invasion of that country for their own financial gain.

First, what is your definition of "Wealthy"?

One million?

Five million?

A hundred million?

A billion?

I want all of the wealthy elite to feel the pain that millions of Americans have felt, since Reaganomics was introduced and the wealthy elite grew obscenely richer, while everyone else got screwed. I would even LMAO if a retroactive tax was introduced on their sorry asses to make up the difference these bastards should have been paying all these years.

If you are rich, I do not give a shit about you and I don't care if the peasants storm your gates when times get harder. After all, you should have known that your safety and well being depended on a strong and vibrant middle class.

to a politician like Obama.

All in excess gets reinvested into the common good.

no more Wastrels

that making the rich poor won't make the poor rich, I vote we eat the rich.

I'll bring the Grey Poupon and the Chianti.

They are completely anti-consitutional, unnecessary, and out of control. Sixteen agencies and we know about what, three? These guys are nothing but corporate spies and enforcers and they need to be exposed, prosecuted and punished for their crimes, and their "agencies" need to be rooted out and burned like the toxic weeds they are.

should be watched, not the watchers.

and vice versa, and adopt a 90% Estate Tax for anything above 5 million. Am I missing anything?