The Payoff: "Big banks control both parties."

At least one kernel of truth in this former Biden staffers book.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82897.html

I refuse to use big banks. I even busted my ass to get out of debt after bush started allowing the fed to manipulate the interest rates... which after obama has allowed the fed to print money at will... was prolly a bad idea.

Ron Paul has been trying to get this point across for many years. Unfortunately many people write him off because while his content is most intelligent, he doesn't come across with the slick stage presence that people look for in a candidate.

Great thread.

This explains a lot:

From a Time Magazine article by Greg Smith

"There is a misconception that Wall Street is composed of rich people gambling with other rich people's money. This couldn't be further from the truth. The secret that Wall Street doesn't want anyone to know is that hedge funds comprise less than 5% of assets in the stock market. The real big players in the market are individual households and the pension funds, mutual funds, university endowments, charities and foundations that are entrusted with your savings, donations, retirement funds and 401(k)s--trillions and trillions of dollars that are invested with Wall Street banks. In effect, you are the big player in the market, and when a bank overcharges a teacher's retirement fund or a charity on a complex product; misprices the Facebook IPO, causing billions of dollars of wealth destruction; helps the governments of Greece and Italy cover up their debt; or rigs interest rates, affecting trillions of dollars of loans, it ultimately comes out of your pocket."

nochain wrote:This explains a lot:

From a Time Magazine article by Greg Smith

"There is a misconception that Wall Street is composed of rich people gambling with other rich people's money. This couldn't be further from the truth. The secret that Wall Street doesn't want anyone to know is that hedge funds comprise less than 5% of assets in the stock market. The real big players in the market are individual households and the pension funds, mutual funds, university endowments, charities and foundations that are entrusted with your savings, donations, retirement funds and 401(k)s--trillions and trillions of dollars that are invested with Wall Street banks. In effect, you are the big player in the market, and when a bank overcharges a teacher's retirement fund or a charity on a complex product; misprices the Facebook IPO, causing billions of dollars of wealth destruction; helps the governments of Greece and Italy cover up their debt; or rigs interest rates, affecting trillions of dollars of loans, it ultimately comes out of your pocket."

This is somewhat misleading. As far as "assets under management", the above is correct. As far as the level of volume you see manipulating equities, hedge funds and high frequency trading dominate...and that is rich people's money. For instance, one hedge fund, SAC Capital, often accounts for 3% or more of the NYSE volume. High frequency trading can account for 2/3 of market volume.