Wall Street OR Las Vegas!

The average investor's purchase of stock is no longer an invesment in business enterprise, it is a gamble with a bookie broker!

In the pre Regan area, the purchase of stock in a company was a purchase of a part of that company entitling the stock holder to a return of a portion of the profits of the company in the form of dividends. Theoretically, at least, the common stock holder had a right to vote for the "Directors" of the Company who represented the rights of the stockholders and appointed a CEO to operate the Company for the benefit of the owners.

Somewhere along the line the CEO's became the "Owner's" of the company. Directors did little directing and received lucrative compensation. CEO's tried to expand the company gaining enormous compensation in the form of Bonuses and "Stock Rights" (too complicated to explain) giving the Investors (now gamblers) inflated imaginary earnings called growth stock. This imaginary "growth stock" was "traded" (gambled) to produce enormous amounts of "paper money." Companies (Corporate Congloberates) became so big that even the IRS couldn't figure out the proper tax that was to be paid, and imaginary off shore holding companies were formed to confuse the issue even more and line the pockets of the creators of the inflated imaginary economy that was supposed to be the greatest private, free market business enterprise system that ever existed. Credit was extended beyond reason and the government set up "Insurance Entities" to guanantee the value of the inflated economy. A super insurance entity was established to insure the insurance entities. This super insurance entity was backed by solid imaginary credit. Then, Hell broke loose, and imagination turned to reality and the government turned to the taxpayers, who had lost their shirts, to further mortgage their future and their children's future to help out the gamblers and give them money to reimburse them for the loss of their imaginary paper gains. What a system!