Wall Street Versus America

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0415-31.htm

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He despises the fringe microcap fraudsters as much as the more mainstream hedge fund hooligans and mutual funds rip-off artists with their excessive and hidden fees.

He sees evil in the one-sided agreements that all investors sign with their brokers -- the agreements that strip investors of their access to the courts and shuttle them instead into an arbitration system dominated by Wall Street veterans.

Read this book. And keep up with Weiss' current thinking on his web site. (garyweiss.blogspot.com)
He's on to something that few others in the financial press get. In fact, he holds his fellow financial journalists in low regard.

"It is the nature of financial journalism to glorify the powerful and the wealthy," Weiss said. "That's true in all journalism to a great extent. ... It has to the do with the pressures of the job, the pressures of advertising, although they are never spoken of as such. It is the nature of covering a beat where there are a lot of wealthy people. You tend to be hagiographic. Fear of lawsuits has increasingly become an issue. It discourages tough reporting. It has become a background issue. It's never spoken of. No one ever comes out and says -- we are afraid of lawsuits. It is never spoken. It is always in the distance. It's background noise. It's part of the culture."

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[4morewars]

1. k&r

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