"keep capitalism clean"

A Reader in the Midwest "Commented-In" last week on the SAC story:

I'm never one to quote movies as evidence, but one thing in the final Batman chapter was correct... when the stock market was being held up and the suit says "this is a trading floor, there's no money to steal here," the villain retorts, "Really?  Then what are you people doing here?"

On some level that is exactly right.  The power-brokers game the system on a daily basis, taking money that should belong to real investors, and putting it in their pockets.

The stock market now has less to do with the quality of a company and its operations, and more to do with Wall St. Weasels manipulating the perceived value of stocks and commodities at the speed of light, and gaming the system's latencies / flaws... skimming money is now a matter of moving assets at a particular minute and second of the day after a particular bit of information is leaked.  Hit-and-run.

There are more criminals per capita on Wall St. than the south side of Chicago, Detroit, or any other crime ridden neighborhood.  And the crimes are much worse than possessing a $10 bag of pot, frankly.  Many people in prison should be at home and many in posh apartments overlooking NYC, should be in prison.

other Reader Comments:

(New Jersey) -- This is a good move by the government to crack down on such practices and such firms.  Cohen is a criminal and the real victory will be when they get to him.  The other big issue is that he is only one shark in the family, hopefully this investigation will also help trap other bigger sharks like GS etc. who encourage Cohen type people and practices.  This dirt is a result of capitalism and we should clean it and keep capitalism clean.

(N.J.) -- One small step for the rule of law.
One giant leap for economic justice.
Time to break up the Wall St. racketeering mafia and their violent economic terrorism of insider, high-speed trading and stock, security and commodity manipulation.
Wall St. is the world leader in grand larceny.

(KW, Arizona) -- Mr. Cohen instructed his traders to get the "dope" no matter what and where but not let him know where it came from.  If you didn't bring in your pile of gold regularly and lay it at his feet you were fired.  Mr. Cohen purposely dodged the insider trading laws by demanding that his traders violate it daily.  Also, any particularly "good dope" always went to the boss's account first.  The traders got second dibs on the contraband.  Is that hard to prove?  Apparently those traders are talking....SAC will have its day in court, just like Bernie Madoff.

(NY) -- Apparently Steven Cohen and SAC Capital were successful as
criminals,
not as
traders.

(Steve, NY) -- You have to love it how these hedge fund managers like Cohen who are famous for keeping a close eye on anything involving the markets claim ignorance about what's going on in their own firms....

(EddieboyS, NYC) -- Oh, they know but turn a blind eye if they personally are benefiting from the behaviors and can claim a modicum of plausible deniability.

(Yreka, CA) -- Great - now how about going after the banks?

(Dan, New York) -- Starting way back under the guise of Reaganomics, The Corporations took over America by picking go-fer politicians who had and have no principles.  The idiots voted for these jokers because they campaigned on the knownothing, patriot, anti-welfare, bigoted platform.  Now they are the ones that are struggling and talking about the good old days when they had benefits and pension.  They were used.

(Texas) -- Since it's unclear exactly what productive benefit SAC brings to the US economy, killing the company will send just the right message to Wall Street to slow down the foolishness for a little while.  Meanwhile, the really right message would send Cohen away to prison for a few years, like Madoff, but I won't expect miracles (or 30% annual returns year after year).

------------------ (Milwaukee) -- Hedge funds bring NO productive benefits to the US economy, it's "hedge I win, tails you lose".  It's pure grift for the wealthy.

(Minneapolis) -- So The Citadel Group is involved.  They gave $1 million to Obama in '08, and then went over to the Republicans.  The parasitic psychopaths club is exclusive and non-partisan.

(sam I am, boston) -- It's certainly possible to become a billionaire in perfectly legitimate and honorable ways -- especially those that result from actually developing and selling material products that actually enhance life, rather than moving paper -- but it's a fair guess that, in the explosion of billionaire fortunes in the last two decades, few could withstand the scrutiny of a "legitimate and honorable" test.  This is particularly true on Wall Street and its environs.

It's reasonable to assume many such fortunes acquired before and as a result of the financial collapse would fail that test.  Let's hear it for the SEC and DOJ.  This is long overdue.

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