Wall Street - Washington's Addict Friend
Wall Street has the mentality of an addict. They want more profit, more money, more bonuses to the exclusion of all else, and they have deluded themselves into believing that their roll is to make money for themselves and their shareholders without regard to the economic and moral consequences of how they get that money.
The sad thing is that, while we have a capitalist economy (and, cards on table, I am a capitalist), Wall Street has a necessary role to play. They exist to move capital from people who have it in excess to people who need it. Whether that's helping people buy a new house or a new car or start up a small business or modernize facilities, the roll of Wall Street is to facilitate the movement of money from people who have it to people who need it. In return for that they are entitled to a certain amount of profit for their firms.
But that profit isn't apparently enough. Instead Wall Street is fighting for every penny of profit they can get their hands on, without regard for the strain they are placing on the system. We saw the consequences of this in 2008 and the housing blow up; Wall Street had created an alphabet soup of investment vehicles designed to profit off of housing - from the relatively straightforward CMO to the more complex CDO and Synthetic CDO - they piled these vehicles on a market that was already overheating and caused a crash. Enormous amounts of capital melted away like fools gold.
It's tempting to think of that capital as having belonged to the investor class, and therefore, screw those guys. But the truth is, these types of bonds were held by Local Governments and Retirement plans all over the country. That much money disappearing has real consequences for real people.
And yet Wall Street, after a few attempts at apology, is now back at the top of the addict cycle - grabbing as much of their drug of choice as they can, while loudly insisting that they are in complete control. And, sadly, Washington does nothing. One party does it's best to help Wall Street feed its addiction, while the other largely looks the other way.
Consider for a moment - what does the real friend of an addict do? Help them get more of their drug of choice, or get them into rehab? What do the candidates for the Presidency seem likely to do - get Wall Street get more profit, regardless of the harm to the system (and ultimately Wall Street itself)? Politely look the other way? or Regulate them and force them to act within reasonable bounds?
Bryant
