Wall Street no longer considers long term

There now exists a new paradigm on Wall Street of instant gratification, governed by ever faster computers reporting instantaneous securities, foreign exchange and derivative prices and generating commensurate trades in the milliseconds with billions of dollars in volume and profits the prize.

The day of blue chip companies with reputations earned by the labor of long-term employment contracts is becoming a memory from the past

The ruling criterion is daily trading based on a frenzy of speculation and expectations in fractions of a second, not years. The new environment can help explain the irrational gains in stock prices over the last year - despite the deep and continued slump experienced by Main Street and the mounting toll heaped upon the public, banks not members of a ruling elite, companies across the spectrum, diverse and basic industries in construction, manufacturing, transportation, retail sales, etc., and virtually every state and local government in the country.

George Black

Iowa City