POSITIVELY BLACK
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Wall Street Ponzi
"There's a sucker born every minute." ‑ P.T. Barnum
"In spite of its utilitarian purpose of raising and distributing capital, the stock market also functions‑ and the most cynical anticapitalists would argue, functions primarily‑ as a pyramid."‑ from Coercion by Douglas Rushkoff p 250
The corporate owned mass media is trivializing the recent revelations of corporate bankruptcies and corruption by putting a spin on it that says it’s merely a few unscrupulous accountants and greedy CEO’s getting over on their shareholders; when in fact, the issue at Enron, WorldCom, et al is really about structural flaws within the whole system. The stock market is inherently elitist and the very essence of a good ol’ boy network. Sure, investing in the stock market is a way to raise capital, become part of a potentially profitable enterprise and make money simultaneously; but it also contains within it, insider wheeling and dealing and manipulation that goes on daily with or without the involvement of accountants or politicians. In the fifteenth century the desire for wealth brought European men of nobility and adventure together who pooled their resources, invested their money to form mercantile consortiums which, once they became profitable spawned imitators who went on to form companies like the Dutch East India Trading Company or the East India Company which were created to spur “trade” and generate wealth for themselves from Africa, Asia and the Americas. Initially these men charted ships to transverse the seas searching for both raw materials and finished products that could be sold in their native countries or elsewhere. As they became profitable they allowed others to “invest” in their enterprises. Eventually others started their own companies which subsequently opened up investment opportunities for still more. However you must understand during and immediately after Mediaeval times, most Europeans were surfs and peasants. The vast majority of the people were poor, they owned no land, money or assets. As the mercantile movement blossomed and Europeans benefitted from the trans-Atlantic slave trade, imperialism and colonialism with an improvement in their standards of living the vast majority of Europeans still weren’t able to invest seriously because they didn’t have much and they were locked out by the upper class. What many of the poor whites did to improve their lot was to sign on as indentured servants, seamen, slave catchers, pirate ship crewmen etc. Remember the English pirates called themselves privateers. They were businessmen who engaged in marauding and stealing the cargos of other country’s ships, splitting the spoils and bounty with the Crown and their investors. Actual trading and investment opportunities were limited to the nobility and upper classes. As those involved got richer, they kept it locked amongst their own group.
It has only been in the last century or so investment opportunities have been opened to the little man. Nowadays investing is open to everyone, people with limited incomes can form investment clubs or invest individually in retirement plans, mutual funds, stocks and bonds. Nevertheless investing is still essentially a gamble; when you stop to think about it, it’s actually a pyramid scheme. Douglas Rushkoff in his informative book Coercion Why We Listen to What “They” Say compares the stock market to a pyramid or Ponzi. “Respected investors and experts at the top of the pyramid buy the issues they want at the lowest price possible. Usually they will pick a stock that has gone out of favor for one reason or another. Their own large purchases bump up the price on the stock a couple of points. Then they issue reports or go on television and make buy recommendations on that same stock, based on the recent turnaround in the price. As investors scramble to match the moves of their favorite analysts, the recommended stock invariably shoots up, increasing the value of the expert’s portfolio and adding to his credibility. Once interest has reached a peak and the number of new buyers has reached the saturation point, the original buyers sell their stock to the last round of patsies- the lowest level of the pyramid, usually composed of the smaller individual investors- they are left holding the stock as everyone else sells. Then the price of the stock drops accordingly. With devalued stock in hand, the last investors can find no one to buy it at a price anywhere near what they paid. Then the experts issue sell recommendations, buy it again and the whole process starts all over.” p 250
This is exactly what happened at Enron only the big boys at the top were hooked up politically with major players in both parties and were part of a network of wheeler dealers making moves all over the world the US media won’t dare tell us about even if they wanted to. What made it really an insider deal/scam was, not only were they doing the usual “pump and dump”, they were funneling huge sums of money into their own pockets, and using big league accounting firms like Arthur Anderson to cover their fraud and thievery. Now Bush is forced to do damage control because the one thing that can upset the applecart is if the public- individual investors, pensioners, insurance company policy holders (who are on the bottom of the pyramid) , like the employees who were encouraged to purchase Enron stock as it was falling while the big boys were selling their shares at a profit- get too upset, they could bring down the whole system. They could actually demand thorough on-going congressional investigations and vote their elected officials who took money from lobbyists representing companies like Enron out of office if they don’t yield to the public good! Or they could take to the streets.
You hear talk about investor confidence, meaning the people who invest must willingly suspend their skepticism and believe the system is not rigged or fixed by and for those at the top even though the small time investor would gladly take full advantage of any insider tips or info if they could get any. So now Bush must pretend he will do something to clean it up. That’s only for public consumption because that’s the way the system works and Bush is an insider himself. He’s part of the ruling elite class that has wheeled and dealt, robbed and stolen for generations. Remember his brother Neil was the front man for the family as they ripped off the Silverado Savings and Loan Association for untold millions of dollars. His daddy George Sr. former CIA Director and President is getting richer by the minute off defense contracts, pharmaceuticals, energy and related deals George Jr.’s War on Terrorism is bringing his Carlyle Group buddies. His granddaddy and great grand-pappy helped rearm and re-industrialize Nazi Germany in the 20's and 30's! So, let the buyer beware. Remember P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Hopefully the suckers won’t continue to be us.
Junious
Ricardo Stanton produce and host a Internet
radio program titled
The Digital
Underground which airs live on Sundays from 12 pm- 2 pm eastern standard time on
www.NewBlackCity.com
www.harambe.com and BlackMic Radio come lets support our warrior!
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