Replies

Reduced transparency creates the potential for much mischief. Goldman Sachs seems especially prone to favor dark markets, having been a prime operator in dark market commodities speculation (and manipulation?). I'm starting to fear Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan more than al-Qaeda.

Here are some links for anyone curious...

Bourses lose business to the 'dark pool'

Everybody Into the Dark Pool

'Dark Pools' Threaten Wall Street

Transparency is good for the public and essential for the small investor.

I wonder how many ex-Enron employees work at Goldman Sachs. Goldman sure seems to be executing the things Enron executives planned, but never got a chance to perform.

In the past Wall Street has performed a necessary function by efficiently matching capital with enterprise. Today, however, Wall Street is a collection of overly smart people (not as smart as they think they are) with little understanding of the companies and industries they're playing in, but an excellent understanding of the numbers. This results in short-term investment thinking, which is purely by the numbers, because they don't understand how real companies generate wealth and how to recognize long-term potential.

In short, we've got a bunch of people who make nothing, build nothing, distribute nothing, warehouse nothing, and know next to nothing about real business. But, they control vast sums of money and their greed and monopoly games are threatening to wreck the country and world's economies. These are the guys who helped create the sub-prime mess and the run-up in commodity prices.

[/conspiracy theory][/rant]