CLASS is the next huge taxpayer bailout

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/26/riedl-class-is-the-next-huge-taxpayer-bailout/?page=1 ^

[roses of sharon]

Thanks so much....you may also enjoy this remarkable speech by Janice Rogers Brown, made in 2000.

At the end she warns us: “We must get a grip on what we can and hold on. Hold on with all the energy and imagination and ferocity we possess. Hold on even while we accept the darkness.”

http://www.constitution.org/col/jrb/00420_jrb_fedsoc.htm

[TopQuark]

"Wall Street is fueled by Main Street, but is not owned by it."

Fortunately, you can even use the web to check within minutes how wrong you are. BP is not on Wall Street but a good example of a large public firm. It has 40 million shareholders (owners) in the U.K. and 39 million in the U.S.

Each of the firms such as Goldman Sachs, City, AIG is owned by tens of millions of Americans. "They give us the opportunity to give them money"

No, it is you who hires management to make a profit for you. This is the essence of the joint stock companies --- corporations, you know, which explored and founded this country.

It's a shame that even conservatives no longer know how their country works.

"through financial instruments that they control,"

No, they don't control those instruments. They buy and sell them on your behalf. Most of those investment are awabilable to you as well. "so they can use that capital to make huge gains"

Sometimes they are huge gains, sometimes they are huge losses. In all cases these are your gains and losses. You probably own a share or two of Goldman Sachs (perhaps without even knowing that, through your mutual fund). The CEO may own 100,000 shares. You and that CEO get the same profit (or loss) per share.

If you have feel this insufficient and have the money, you can buy more shares of GS. You and the CEO will still get the same profit per share.

"while keeping our returns small over the long term."

This is insane. As I just described above, it is in the CEO's interest to make the profit as large as possible. It is insane to say that they keep "returns small."

And I don't know what you call small. Stocks return 8%/year on average, much more than real estate or gold. So it looks large to me. P> "The mutual fund was a brilliant move by them to allow us to think we have some skin in the game, without giving us a vote."

Another insanity -- what planet do you live on? It is your choice which mutual fund to use; that is your vote. If you buy a stock directly --- into your IRA, for instance, --- you receive invitation to vote every quarter.

"Creating the 401k/IRA/etc was even more brilliant because it locks our capital in for their use for most of our lifespan."

How do they employ your money for their own use, if all the profits are distributed equally?

Sounds to me that you are imbued with envy and hatred for corporate managers without any understanding whatever what they do and how companies work --- just as commie newspapers want you to feel. For you repeat them word for word.