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This special was amazing too..just seeing how little the folks on Wall Street care. They spend billions upon billions of dollars to convince people a lie is true, and then blame them for believing in it. Sick.
Great video, thanks for posting it. I knew they didn't care a long time ago ... that's why I never believed in that bullshit anyway. Good trading
Michael Lewis's books and statements are ringing loudly in my head: Wall Street is Las Vegas with much better, more powerful (the most powerful) and best connected lobbyists.
The episode just reaffirms that in Wall Street, just like every other "industry", there are many with their hands in the pie.
I feel very sorry for the people who have sustained big 401K losses due to the recent down turn and also for those who have been robbed by fees in their funds, but how much time did these people put in to understanding how they were planning to fund their retirements? You don't take huge losses in your 401K unless you are taking big risks. Certainly we need more transparency, and at least half of the financial services industry are a bunch of slimey crooks, white collar criminals aided and abetted by various regulator agencies that have been in thier pockets for decades, but I get the feeling that stories like these are designed to lay the ground work for even less flexibility and more government control when it comes to investment choices. The solutions are transparency and fiscal and financial education.
All you need to know about Wall Street and its (lack of) integrity can be found in the video when Steve Kroft asks the 401(k) lobbyist whether his buddies support more disclosure of fees. Sometimes, facial expressions, lack of ready-made answers, insincerity in one's eyes and stuttering.... speaks louder than fabricated responses. The section of fees starts at about at 09:19. The fees can eat up more than 50% of the value of a 401(k), not even mentioning market losses. Slimeballs. There are fewer younger people to replace the baby boomers who had a huge % of their savings in the markets and are crushed. Will Wall Street find replacement suckers to compensate for those who will now tune out? This is kind of like the cigarette racket - can they find enough new smokers to replace the ones who die of smoking related complications.
That 401K lobbyist guy came across like a parasite - which pretty much fits the subject matter. It's funny how there is an entire industry built on folks who take a lot of fees and money as fund "managers", but when the loses hit, it's "YOU'RE responsible for taking care of your non-financial-industry job AND being a financial analyst, not me! I just take the fee!" I'm wondering if that idea of converting Social Security over to self-directed would have helped - like moving $ from one Ponzi to another...
Thats exactly why the lows are not in. NOBODY ESCAPES ALIVE AND FULL CAPITULATION HAS NOT OCCURED. the 666 bottom was non panic and low vol. It might be late 2009 or even 2010 but we'll revist the lows again