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An email being circulated around Wall Street this morning...
We are Wall Street. It's our job to make money. Whether it's a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn't matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn't hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone's 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I've never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.
Well now the market crapped out, & even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joes are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well, here we are.
Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you're only going to hurt yourselves. What's going to happen when we can't find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We're going to take yours. We get up at 5am & work till 10pm or later. We're used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don't take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don't demand a union. We don't retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we'll eat that.
For years teachers and other unionized labor have had us fooled. We were too busy working to notice. Do you really think that we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping? We're going to take your cushy jobs with tenure and 4 months off a year and whine just like you that we are so-o-o-o underpaid for building the youth of America. Say goodbye to your overtime and double time and a half. I'll be hitting grounders to the high school baseball team for $5k extra a summer, thank you very much.
So now that we're going to be making $85k a year without upside, Joe Mainstreet is going to have his revenge, right? Wrong! Guess what: we're going to stop buying the new 80k car, we aren't going to leave the 35 percent tip at our business dinners anymore. No more free rides on our backs. We're going to landscape our own back yards, wash our cars with a garden hose in our driveways. Our money was your money. You spent it. When our money dries up, so does yours.
The difference is, you lived off of it, we rejoiced in it. The Obama administration and the Democratic National Committee might get their way and knock us off the top of the pyramid, but it's really going to hurt like hell for them when our fat a**es land directly on the middle class of America and knock them to the bottom.
We aren't dinosaurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive. The question is, now that Obama & his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply…will he? and will they?
They should be thanking their lucky stars this isn't China during the Cultural Revolution
Its not like they're really providing anything of value to society at large these days...
Yes, broadly speaking, I think it's funny that people hold the gov't responsible for creating jobs. Isn't the private sector the last place anyone wants the government. Gov't can provide incentives though, but who is responsible for economic development/R&D brainstorming- industry. Not even those on Wall Street neither.
Actually, it would be the Federal Government, either directly or indirectly (via grants to Universities)...
it is going to be impossible to continue with extend and pretend when we have these facts:
The truth is that there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone. The number of unemployed Americans per job opening hit 5.5 in February.
Even many of those who can get jobs find themselves in bad situations. Gallup's underemployment measure hit 20.0% on March 15th.
looking ahead, that will mean less tax revenue coming in, which will mean government cuts, which will also mean less government spending.
this cannot continue indefinitely. we have an administration which is trying to implement a global tax (through cap and trade) which will further hurt americans (although it will greatly help goldman sachs and the chicago climate exchange). wake up america to an administration which is trying to further hamper employment and further hurt the private sector INTENTIONALLY.
it is no accident that this administration is trying to encourage illegal immigration and fight those who would wish to stop it, with some even calling those who are for enforcement of our existing laws "nazis" and encouraging boycotts of american states and american business!
An email being circulated around Wall Street this morning...
We are Wall Street. It's our job to make money. Whether it's a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn't matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn't hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone's 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I've never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.
Well now the market crapped out, & even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joes are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well, here we are.
Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you're only going to hurt yourselves. What's going to happen when we can't find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We're going to take yours. We get up at 5am & work till 10pm or later. We're used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don't take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don't demand a union. We don't retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we'll eat that.
For years teachers and other unionized labor have had us fooled. We were too busy working to notice. Do you really think that we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping? We're going to take your cushy jobs with tenure and 4 months off a year and whine just like you that we are so-o-o-o underpaid for building the youth of America. Say goodbye to your overtime and double time and a half. I'll be hitting grounders to the high school baseball team for $5k extra a summer, thank you very much.
So now that we're going to be making $85k a year without upside, Joe Mainstreet is going to have his revenge, right? Wrong! Guess what: we're going to stop buying the new 80k car, we aren't going to leave the 35 percent tip at our business dinners anymore. No more free rides on our backs. We're going to landscape our own back yards, wash our cars with a garden hose in our driveways. Our money was your money. You spent it. When our money dries up, so does yours.
The difference is, you lived off of it, we rejoiced in it. The Obama administration and the Democratic National Committee might get their way and knock us off the top of the pyramid, but it's really going to hurt like hell for them when our fat a**es land directly on the middle class of America and knock them to the bottom.
We aren't dinosaurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive. The question is, now that Obama & his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply…will he? and will they?
Quote:
Originally Posted by stevemorse
I think this is true to a point. They stop spending and we all lose. I actually think its a good letter.
Gimme a break. These bozos don't spend enough that if they stopped the economy would even blip. Nothing but a poor me ego letter written by some whiny, snot-nosed kid who's pi$$ed off that they're getting called to task for trashing the world economy.
Teach our kids? Who would want someone with the attitude this person has teaching their kids? Even Joe the Plumber isn't that gullible.
I think it's time for these jerks to do some jail time.
An email being circulated around Wall Street this morning...
We are Wall Street. It's our job to make money. Whether it's a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn't matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn't hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone's 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I've never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.
Well now the market crapped out, & even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joes are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well, here we are.
Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you're only going to hurt yourselves. What's going to happen when we can't find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We're going to take yours. We get up at 5am & work till 10pm or later. We're used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don't take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don't demand a union. We don't retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we'll eat that.
For years teachers and other unionized labor have had us fooled. We were too busy working to notice. Do you really think that we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping? We're going to take your cushy jobs with tenure and 4 months off a year and whine just like you that we are so-o-o-o underpaid for building the youth of America. Say goodbye to your overtime and double time and a half. I'll be hitting grounders to the high school baseball team for $5k extra a summer, thank you very much.
So now that we're going to be making $85k a year without upside, Joe Mainstreet is going to have his revenge, right? Wrong! Guess what: we're going to stop buying the new 80k car, we aren't going to leave the 35 percent tip at our business dinners anymore. No more free rides on our backs. We're going to landscape our own back yards, wash our cars with a garden hose in our driveways. Our money was your money. You spent it. When our money dries up, so does yours.
The difference is, you lived off of it, we rejoiced in it. The Obama administration and the Democratic National Committee might get their way and knock us off the top of the pyramid, but it's really going to hurt like hell for them when our fat a**es land directly on the middle class of America and knock them to the bottom.
We aren't dinosaurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive. The question is, now that Obama & his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply…will he? and will they?
Truly comical, file this one next to the Real Estate agents, and Mortgage Brokers who are crying and denying their part in this fiasco. Yes compared to the rest of us Stock Brokers are the pillars of our society. LOL
Let's face facts here - a business is started with one goal and one goal only in mind - MAKING MONEY. They are there to make a profit that they can use to grow and expand. They are not there soley to provide us with jobs, they are not there as social experiments, and they are certainly not there to be ATM machines for a massively overspending, power hungry government. Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, it has been business and industry that has made us a great nation, not goverment. The government wouldn't have to provide "incentives" if they would just stop throwing roadblocks in front of economic growth and start making the overall environment more business friendly. The government needs to cut way, way back on our deficit spending, cut the crap out of entitlements, and do something to address the astronomical national debt and the impending insolvency of Social Security, instead of running around calling for more regulation of banks. What good does it do to create new laws and regulations, when the regulators UTTERLY FAILED to enforce the rules that are ALREADY in effect? Congress should be grilling ITSELF for creating the subprime mortgage meltdown at Fannie and Freddie that led to this recession instead of Goldman Sachs who merely profited off of it. Hell, given Goldmans business preformance, maybe the goverment should be studying and learning from their sucess instead of trying to crucify them.
Bottom line - it's business and industry that provides this country with "the food on our plates", as the email above says. Our government merely takes and squanders vast amounts of our national resources, uses politics and class warefare to divide the American people and, with very few exceptions, provides nothing of value in return. Which side should be REALLY be mad at here?
Couldn't have said it better myself. I was literally LMAO watching senators grill Goldman Sachs on Capital Hill. Umm...did Goldman Sachs make interest rates 1% (when the free market would have set them at 7%+)? No, they didn't. Did Goldman Sachs make investors buy these "mortgage backed securities?" No, they didn't! And finally, did Goldman Sachs make people take out INTEREST ONLY LOANS?!? No, they didn't. Why anyone would put themselves in debt when they could only afford the interest payment is beyond me. Goldman Sachs is in the business of making money, and there was a market for these securities, so they packaged and sold them (it's pretty simple and not that complicated).
As for the rest of your post, it was spot on as well. The private sector creates a product/service that brings in money (which leads to increased wealth for America as a whole). When this happens the government comes in and steals money from these corporations to reallocate it. The government doesn't bring in this money, the companies do. It's simple economics and I wish people that are for these socialist programs and incentives actually understood economics. Nothing in life is free, and as soon as it is there is an underlying problem in the fundamentals that will eventually collapse.
We can't have everybody on a level playing field. It's basic statistics (and you CAN'T change the rules of the universe). There will always be some extremely poor people, some extremely rich people, and the majority will lie somewhere in the middle. If people don't understand that concept, take a beginners statistics class. Again, it's a pretty easy concept to grasp.
"It already appears, that there must be in every society of men superiors and inferiors, because God has laid in the constitution and course of nature the foundations of the distinction."
- John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776
Last edited by hskrfan2187; 04-30-2010 at 12:36 PM..
We can't have everybody on a level playing field. It's basic statistics (and you CAN'T change the rules of the universe).
Thanks for the nod on my post, and I agree with everything you said except the above. I believe that we ARE all on a level playing field already. This is the United States Of America, and every American citizen has the the exact same opportunity to excel and succeed. Our founding fathers gave us the all the right to life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness. They did not guarantee that we would all achieve it. It is what we do with our own opportunities that determines where we all end up in life. Like various commericals like to disclaim - "Your results may vary".
Quote:
Gimme a break. These bozos don't spend enough that if they stopped the economy would even blip.
It's obvious to me that the vast majority of people in this country really have no idea what Wall Street really does. It seems to me that when Wall Street banks all stopped lending, the economy DID grind to a halt, and it was almost a dead stop. Do you even understand what the term CREDIT CRISIS means?
Thanks for the nod on my post, and I agree with everything you said except the above. I believe that we ARE all on a level playing field already. This is the United States Of America, and every American citizen has the the exact same opportunity to excel and succeed. Our founding fathers gave us the all the right to life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness. They did not guarantee that we would all achieve it. It is what we do with our own opportunities that determines where we all end up in life. Like various commericals like to disclaim - "Your results may vary".
It's obvious to me that the vast majority of people in this country really have no idea what Wall Street really does. It seems to me that when Wall Street banks all stopped lending, the economy DID grind to a halt, and it was almost a dead stop. Do you even understand what the term CREDIT CRISIS means?
Oh, I couldn't agree more with what you said. My point about statistics is that not everybody can have the same amount of wealth (thus there will always be different classes). For example, everybody does have the same level starting field (because as you pointed out this is America) but lets say everyone goes and gets an MBA and every person in America is so determined to succeed that they work 12 hrs/day and 7 days a week. There will still be some people that are more successful than others, because the economy can only consume so much so there can only be so many successful businesses, investors, etc. So that is what I was trying to get across with the statistics analogy. But the fact of the matter is, we have a lot of lazy people in this country so it is usually the people that drop out of high school or settle for an average job that sit there and complain. So as things sit now, if someone were to work 12hrs/day, 7 days/wk and study their butt off, then they will be destined for success.
I think the school thing is a little overplayed as well, however. History has shown that people with a drive to succeed, will succeed (even if they don't have the schooling to back it up). I'm set to graduate with my bachelors degree in a week and plan on starting my MBA in the fall, but I would say 90% of the knowledge i have/use for investing was self taught. I learned very basic knowledge from my classes but I took it one step further by checking out book after book from the library and self teaching myself everything I could.
An email being circulated around Wall Street this morning...
We are Wall Street. It's our job to make money. Whether it's a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn't matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn't hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone's 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I've never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.
Well now the market crapped out, & even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joes are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well, here we are.
Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you're only going to hurt yourselves. What's going to happen when we can't find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We're going to take yours. We get up at 5am & work till 10pm or later. We're used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don't take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don't demand a union. We don't retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we'll eat that.
For years teachers and other unionized labor have had us fooled. We were too busy working to notice. Do you really think that we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping? We're going to take your cushy jobs with tenure and 4 months off a year and whine just like you that we are so-o-o-o underpaid for building the youth of America. Say goodbye to your overtime and double time and a half. I'll be hitting grounders to the high school baseball team for $5k extra a summer, thank you very much.
So now that we're going to be making $85k a year without upside, Joe Mainstreet is going to have his revenge, right? Wrong! Guess what: we're going to stop buying the new 80k car, we aren't going to leave the 35 percent tip at our business dinners anymore. No more free rides on our backs. We're going to landscape our own back yards, wash our cars with a garden hose in our driveways. Our money was your money. You spent it. When our money dries up, so does yours.
The difference is, you lived off of it, we rejoiced in it. The Obama administration and the Democratic National Committee might get their way and knock us off the top of the pyramid, but it's really going to hurt like hell for them when our fat a**es land directly on the middle class of America and knock them to the bottom.
We aren't dinosaurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive. The question is, now that Obama & his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply…will he? and will they?
i saw that letter on reformed broker and also saw this pretty good response to it:
Dear Mr. Trader,
While the forcefulness with which you speak will likely cause people to nod their heads as they listen, a quick dissection of your points will show them to be the fantasies of a narrow-minded individual with an inflated opinion of their place in this world.
"We are Wall Street. It's our job to make money."
You can't possibly believe that you have the right to make money any way you see fit, regardless of the impact it has on the people around you. If we determine that the choices of a business are negatively impacting human society, we regulate their behavior with the goal of preventing future harm. When choosing between the bottom line and quality of life, we choose quality of life. Yes, there is a risk of over-regulating and doing more harm than good, but taking that risk is better than letting the harmful behavior continue as is, unchecked.
"We're going to take your jobs!"
The fact that you actually believe the talents of a trader are the same talents required to do any job out there (especially a teacher or a landscaper) are proof that you are woefully unprepared to do our jobs, let alone do them well. The fact that your current salary is higher than ours does not mean you are better equipped to do our job. You believe that your value as a human can be equated to a dollar figure like your income because that is what your industry has taught
you. We believe that is precisely why you need to be regulated. You are one sick f*ck.
"No more free rides on our backs"
Has your absorption with money created the delusion that you are actually producing it? The unemployment rate is over 10% thanks to you, and you think that the loss of your "upside" will have a significant incremental impact on us? You don't make the money, stupid. You just move it around. That is a fact that we have learned very painfully when all that imaginary "value" you helped "create" disappeared.
In summary, bring it on. We are not worried about you. We might even hire you to landscape our gardens.
Sincerely,
Joe Mainstreet
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Couldn't have said it better myself. I was literally LMAO watching senators grill Goldman Sachs on Capital Hill. Umm...did Goldman Sachs make interest rates 1% (when the free market would have set them at 7%+)? No, they didn't. Did Goldman Sachs make investors buy these "mortgage backed securities?" No, they didn't! And finally, did Goldman Sachs make people take out INTEREST ONLY LOANS?!? No, they didn't. Why anyone would put themselves in debt when they could only afford the interest payment is beyond me. Goldman Sachs is in the business of making money, and there was a market for these securities, so they packaged and sold them (it's pretty simple and not that complicated). 
