10 dirty tricks,,, How Wall Street lobbyists, PR hot shots will limit reform, brainwash America

[RedEarth]

10 dirty tricks to jump-start a new bull, fast!
How Wall Street lobbyists, PR hot shots will limit reform, brainwash America

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- 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.

So Wall Street's army of lobbyists will have to pull off some fancy tricks, many at odds with today's demands for "change" by the president and political reformers. But now's the time to act, with the new TARP rules and an $800 billion stimulus bonanza on the way.

Look beyond the bad news. Remember, Washington's run by 40,000 lobbyists not 537 elected politicians. I'm betting lobbyists will use the following tactics to neutralize activists and limit reforms. That way, behind the scenes Wall Street keeps control with its business-as-usual tactics, schemes, scams, hustles and wheeling and dealing.

Here are the 10 "dirty tricks" Wall Street lobbyists likely will use to help jump-start a new bull market:

Gridlock helps the rich get richer
No Glass-Steagall revival
Keep rating agencies ‘official’
Limit new derivative regulations, keep ’shadow banking’ alive
Offload toxic debt into a government-owned ‘bad bank’
Support executive pay limits — in public, anyway
Create accounting standards loopholes
No limitations on SEC hiring
Invest heavily in lobbying
Major PR brainwashing: Yes, yes, a new bull is coming!>

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Ten-dirty-tricks-Wall-Street/story.aspx?guid={34D0B6E7-FEDC-4193-8F18-71D97715997B}

[JohnWxy]

1. very good article. HE's right on re Wall Street group. I especially liked these 4:

No Glass-Steagall revival
Keep rating agencies ‘official’
Limit new derivative regulations, keep ’shadow banking’ alive
Offload toxic debt into a government-owned ‘bad bank’

They certainly would want the offload of all toxic debt to the Government (i.e. the taxpayers) over the looming possibility of Government acquiring considerable more equity interest - which I think is the ONLY way the public should 'acquire' the toxic assets.


Of course, MY preferred approach would be for the nation (via our Government) to start lending directly to those who need the money, individuals or businesses, and let Wall Street work out their problems themselves. Those who need money to buy a car or a house or to meet payrolls or buy inventory can just go to a government "People's Bank" and get a loan and they won't be hindered by Wall Street trying to figure out how to pass their gambling debts onto somebody else.

But who's listening to me. I am just one of the lowly people, not a corporate lobbyist or wealthy Republican. I am not of the ruling elite.


REcommended.

[Joanne98]

2. Their trying to start another oil bubble right now.

[AdHocSolver]

3. Nothing will change until the rubes learn that the stock market is no more than a giant Ponzi scheme

The stock market is rigged. The insiders rig it, because that is the only way that they can make huge profits.

Enron was not an anomaly. Enron is the model. Look how many companies "adjusted" their earnings statements after Enron was exposed for "cooking" their books.

The "investors" are supposed to lose their money in a properly run Ponzi scheme. The little investor pours his money into a stock driving up the price, and then the insiders sell to a lot of "little" investor at this inflated price, and then the stock price collapses, after the insiders bale out, leaving the "little" investor holding a lot of pretty much worthless stock.

It is a simple scheme pulled over and over again because the "little" investors live in a fantasy world of Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy. The rubes and suckers can never admit they have been cheated, so they spout economic snake oil terms like "free trade" or financial buzz words like collateralized debt obligations (CDO) and asset-backed securities (ABS).

People and institutions poured money into this financial paper without understanding the high risk nature of these instruments. Rating agencies used ouija boards to determine the quality of this paper. No one really new what they were doing in rating or buying this stuff. They made assumptions and poured money into these ratholes.

These were out-and-out frauds. No one wants to admit they were cheated. So they invent all this economic nonsense and cling to it. Then they run to the government to bail them out. The economists and financial experts who are full of it spout snake oil terminology to convince the investors whose money that they lost that finance is so complex "no one could have possibly known."

Nonsense. These scams have been pulled for more than a few years now. A majority of Americans have a Peter Pan mentality and live in never never land which is the main reason the economy booms and busts so frequently.

[sendero]

8. I agree...

.. after getting burned but good in 2001, I will never put substantial assets into the stock market again. The idea that you "own" a piece of a company is a joke. You own nothing and the board and CEO can run the company into the ground for their own gain any time they choose, and many do.

Luckily, being out of this market except for some short positions, I am up for 2008. And I'll be up for 2009, but not by expecting some miracle to turn the pile of shit American business has become into something worthwhile.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. You and AdHocSolver are so right

The stock market is a rigged game, and even when management pull an obvious bait-and-switch scam, or otherwise lie about their corporate goals or results, they almost always get off scot-free unless they piss off the wrong people. "Owning" a piece of a company is, indeed, a joke-- owning stock and thinking that you own a piece of the company is like being a water boy and believing that you're on the football team.

[Joanne98]

4. Sounds like them. God, I wish there was something we could do about the lobbyists...

Something FAST! They're killing the country.

[tosh]

5. Yep. Busy little cancer cells, those lobbyists.

[CoffeeCat]

6. But the serfs are no longer cooperating...

Wall Street, in cahoots with the lobbyists and the politicians, had it their way for a long time.

Corporate big wig paid the lobbyists to persuade the politicians. Then, the corporations contributed
campaign dollars to the politicians--who, in kind, relaxed the banking regulations, the credit-card
regulations, the industry regulations and ownership regulations.

They all had a big frickin party as the money rolled in. The serfs now could buy huge, expensive homes
that they couldn't afford. The credit-card companies were now able to give anyone with a pulse a $10,000
line of credit. Banks were able to allow homeowners to use their homes as ATMs--financing leather furniture
and lavish vacations with their home equity.

Ahhhhhhh...so many dollars were made--as the corporations sucked the marrow dry from "We The People."

The problem that they didn't foresee--is that the people are tapped out and they're also sour on the
stock market. The corporations think of us as objects...not people. We are dollar signs to them. We're
not supposed to think or make rational, responsible decisions. We are solely their ticket to more wealth
and greed.

So, the corporations screwed the pooch. The misunderestimated that we would not play along.

It's just not going to happen. People are getting out of the market--not in. People are losing their
jobs, losing their homes--and they're watching their kids' college funds and their 401ks evaporate.

The serfs are no longer propping up the upper .5 percent. Yes, they'll scheme, lie, sloganize us and
use the media to sell us a load of shineola.

It's just not going to work this time.

[notesdev]

7. I hear The Who

the market is singing "We won't be fooled again!"