When Millionaires Worked for Their Money

Neither bulls nor bears had a very satisfying day, stocks having spent the entire session screwing the pooch. Despite this, I remain mildly optimistic that the stock market is near the point of collapse. So why should this be cause for optimism? Well, if the Dow were to be cut in half, it would crush the banksters, the money managers and all of the other money-grubbing evildoers of the financial world, setting the stage for the revival of honest business. Imagine that! You’d have to have grown up in the Fifties to remember such a time, when millionaires worked, rather than schemed, for their bread. Since then, the paper-shufflers have made a fine art of pursuing easy, undeserved success, raking in seven- and eight-figure bonuses just for pumping up stocks with digital cash that has come nearly free and without  strings from the Federal Reserve. This Ponzi game has come to look more and more like a perpetual motion machine, with rising stock prices boosting CEO salaries, turning paper stock-options into gold and incentivizing share buybacks that have added economically meaningless trillions to the stock market’s valuation.  What could cause this seemingly virtuous, self-perpetuating cycle to end? No one knows. However, end it will, and badly. If you don’t subscribe, click here for two weeks' free access to Rick's Picks, including daily, actionable 'touts', round-the-clock updates, impromptu tech analysis sessions online, and a chat room that draws experienced traders from around the world at all hours of the day and night.