Getting Wise

When the Stock Market Crash of 1929 happened, a lot of wealthy people went to the poor house. It was the classic movie scenario: hordes of pin-striped monopoly men leaping to their deaths from window ledges clutching "you're f*cked" ticker tapes... but then they got wise.

Since then, the stock market has been more and more rigged and slanted to favor the rich. The great 'democratization' of the market, i.e., all those lucky middle class folks invited to the great Wall Street craps table, was nothing but a giant scam. Sure, a working guy can bet his life savings on futures. But he ain't ever gonna win big - the brokers and the big money guys do. And if the market dips, the working guy finds his hard-earned savings were nothing more than penny antes for the billionaires to play with. It's the little guys who lose everything not the big guys whose own wealth is stashed safely away in risk-free accounts.

So should it come as a surprise that the little guys are finally catching on? The NYT is reporting "Small Investors Flee Wall St. in Hordes" and that "[small] investors withdrew $33.12 billion dollars from domestic stock market mutual funds in the first seven months of this year." Damn. Looks like the rich are going to have to start dipping into their own stash again if the market is to survive.

This small-money exodus will be scaring the sh*t out of the rich right now. And I'm sure they'll soon start lobbying for middle-class tax breaks for high-risk investment accounts and other bright ideas to get the little guys back in play. Hopefully, we don't get fooled again.