Market manipulation dooms most of us

In a capitalist economy and society, the principle of the will and decisions of the private citizenry prevail. The broad participation of the public (the “Invisible Hand,” Adam Smith 1776) in buying and selling securities through the Stock Exchanges in a capitalist economy determines prices.

Usurpation of capitalist principles transpires in the following circumstances:

l The stock market is manipulated and controlled by governmental and/or supragovernmental entities superseding a free, competitive market. Over the last five years, the Federal Reserve has injected monthly some $85 million at zero interest cost into the coffers of Wall Street banks (quantitative easing) and has declared by fiat an indefinite continuation of a like policy.

l The current paradigm of Stock Exchange comprises programmable instantaneous securities trading and profits executed by Wall Street parties. The long position for securities and broad public participation are no longer applicable. Consequently, stock indexes have been rendered irrelevant and obsolete.

Under the above (present day) conditions, capitalist principles for Stock Exchanges are voided and capitalism no longer exists.

The current quagmire of bubble and bust economics is facilitated by the devious mechanism underlying the rising national debt, with a few Wall Street traders seizing the spoils at both ends of the cycle. The vast public is the perennial loser and bears the unsustainable burden of an ever-increasing debt fast approaching $20 trillion within the next two years.

In the immediate scenario, the ends and the means are unjustifiable and are a total abuse of total power.

George Block

Iowa CityGe