True I probably am J P Morgan's great great great great great Grandson. In fact I am almost certain of it. However if you check you will see you cannot find any Morgan's since the second world war. This according to my family is because my great or great great grandfather was an alcoholic and drank his fortune away. Then my grandfather started his own insurance firm and retired wealthy. Anyway I am not a Billionaire yet.
Well, you could replace "ET" in your first sentence with a lot of other things (select websites, analysts, journalists, third-party candidates, etc.). The difference is that our livelihood doesn't depend on getting elected, compromising constantly and satisfying the masses with smooth-but-empty rhetoric and "freebies."
The US is no longer able to attract public servants to political office. Instead we elect gangsters like the Bush family. A clueless, do-nothing in Obama and Congress resembles the Roman Senate of antiquity. I still run into many salt-of-the-earth types in everyday life in the USA. They just can't be found in most elected positions today. A huge disonnect, that if not corrected will lead to a future of lamentation and desperation in America. In fact, it is already beginning.
I will guarantee you the average U.S. Senator is worth more than you. what a egotistic idiotic thing to say it actually shows the stupidity of successful traders. Look at the economic cabinet of the white house for the last 30 years, all so called winners of the private sector. You want me to believe that once there on the rolls of government they become incapable of making successful decisions. The Government is there for them to loot. The same bureaucratic structure exists in corporations a lot of times even worse .The same characters pass from private to government and back. Look at what Robert Rubin did for citi group as Treasurer and look how he got rewarded (Director and Senior Counselor of Citigroup). Capitalism, socialism, free tradeism whatever ism you want it doesn't matter insider corruption will eventually creep in if not kept in check. According to our logic the benefactors of the bailout the Blankfiends and Diamonds are intelligent and deserve the big bonuses because they were successful enough to fail and ripe off the rest. Clearly your success as a trader as warped your mind from reality. Even Buffet benefits from insider deals ( see goldman sacs warrents) the mark to imagination he used with his KRAFT stock. maybe they are smart enough not to have any morals or ethics but there no different that your average legislature in fact most of the time they are your average legislature/cabinet/regulator.