World's Largest Casino

So, I haven't pushed much on the Social Security issue (For the best reporting on this issue, see Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo). As we all know, George Bush wants to divert money from the general Social Security fund in order to set up private accounts for each and every one of us, including people like me that know essentially nothing about the stock market. What I do know, I learned during the summer of 2002 when company after company (most notably Enron) was getting indicted or going bankrupt because they tried to artifically bolster their stock prices through shady financial/accounting practices. But, that was three years ago and that kind of thing doesn't happen anymore. Right?

Wrong.

The traders traded ahead, by buying or selling stock for their companies' accounts, at prices that would be better than the public would get, Mr. Kelley said. They would also engage in inter-positioning, in which they buy the stock at one price and then turn around and sell it at a profit to another client, instead of executing a direct sale between interested parties, he added.

"The harm to investors by each of these specialists trading ahead ranged from some $400,000 to $5 million, for a total of nearly $20 million," Mr. Kelley said.

"The defendants functioned at the heart of the New York Stock Exchange," he said.

So, George Bush wants us to divert money from Social Security, thereby exacerbating an already potentially unsettling financial situation, so we can invest in the Stock Market and be subject to the whim of people like the 15 investors mentioned in this article? I don't trust them and I don't trust the Stock Market, the World's Largest Casino.