Rolling Stone dumbs it down to show us that we're totally *u*k*d

wall st regulators have been a fing non-event for many years now and this is a fine example--this shit happens all too often, but to me it's not about shorting it's about scummy trading and, frankly, my belief is that it happens far more frequently on the long side than the short---there are so many more whose interests lie in the appreciation of values---to villify the short is wrong--honest shorts were the only force that kept the bubble somewhat in check--and when your regulators are at best a non-event if not owned by various interests, and corporate exec suites function solely to rally the stox of their companies through option strikes, the shorts have been the only hope of restraint---the incentives are huge for many to villify and bully the shorts

scummy insider trading needs to be regulated aggressively--among so many other features of our financial system--and much of the crap that has been served us in the hysteria of too big to fail must be undone if at all possible--g sack is a bank???? i mean come on...what an fing joke...tip of the iceberg

This is a terrific article. Thanks for posting it ieb.

My problem is that I'm not sure about what any of this realy means. The ccope and magnitude is greater than in the past but the behavior is same as always. Will the surge in the financial markets trickle down to the real economy and we're all saved for anther day? Was the market crash last year itself the black swan? WTF

Wow! This is the scariest thing I've read in a long time.

Thanks for the read - it is eye opening to see how pervasive the "burglar class" has become.

I must be getting very old, because "counterfeiting stock" does not shock me. After reading the article linked to, deja vu went off for me. "But this is like....."

I consulted my trusty bookshelf. I had misremembered the title of the following:
http://www.amazon.com/Scarlet-Woman-Wall-Street-Vanderbilt/dp/1555842127
I had remembered it as "the whore of wall street."

As people have discussed this financial scam/meltdown of CDOs and CDSs, etc., I hear a recurring theme, that this is new, has never happened before, is unlike anything in history. Since I am not an economist or financier I felt a little silly piping in here, but .......... what we have been living through is more like a return to the days of Diamond Jim Brady and railroad stocks.

Our perception of history seems at times to begin at around 1929, "The Crash," FDR, The New Deal, the ideological warfare over communism, socialism, capitalism, free-this, free-that. I don't remember who on this forum posted many months ago so well, but that person(s) pointed out that the controls and safeguards instituted because of the Great Depression were rolled back in recent history, and his current meltdown stems from that.

Finger pointing between Pubs and Dems will get us all nowhere, but I wonder where he head from here. My guess is ... more of the same.

We are always being gamed.
We have always been gamed.
We will always be gamed.
You can try to join them but it's a very small club of very smart people(they probably won't take you).
You can attempt to read the game and try to play along. Good idea for the very smart and disaplined.
You could put you head in the sand.
Last but, not least, you can acknowledge that the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

Embrace the futility and play the game.

there's certainly no point fighting the game

All of these criminals should be brought to justice. They think they are above the law because they rewrite the law to fit themselves. They take the risks and reap the rewards while the American public picks up the pieces. It's brilliant. They hold us captive. I'm confused why no one is bringing charges against these bandits. At least the Rolling Stone has the courage to publish this because I've not heard about it in the Wall Street Journal, which they probably run also. This is dreadful.

Can't believe they aren't investigating this. Gross.