Another of voo-doo economic politics from the Reagan era of stupidity. But in fairness the Clinton administration kept it in power, either in corruption or plain ignorance.

No duh! The 'Plunge Protection Team' is an open secret from its inception, 1988. Of COURSE the Index and indices are rigged ... for TV and radio photo-op and fury-pop, image-kites and sound-bites, doing the massmind dumbing-down. Like YouTube illustrates.

Working Group on Financial Markets, From Wikipedia ... et seq: Market Crisis of 2008 -- On 06 October 2008, the working group issued a statement indicating that it was taking multiple actions available to it in order to attempt to stabilize the financial system, although purchase of stock shares was not part of the statement. The government may wind up owning shares in the firms to which it has provided loans, as they will receive warrants as collateral for these loans. WTF?

It's more the other way: The stock market is rigging the government.

uhhhhhh.YEAH. Heres proof
1- Paulson that gangster thief sat before CONGRESS 4 weeks before the sh hit the fan and said "OUR ECONOMY IS ON SOUND GROUND"...This is the guy who is #1 most connected on Wall Street. Pathetic how stupid we are...SHEEP! We follow.

The bailout is a heist. I see that now. It's scary when the fringe websites turn out to be accurate. This entire balloon and crash has been orchestrated by the bankers who've already conned us out of 2 trillion thus far in the bailout and refuse to tell us where it went.
The reason they gave for borrowing it was to provide liquidity in the markets but they're using the funds to buy other banks instead.
The scary part is the same sites that predicted all this are now saying hyper-inflation within a year, leading to a worthless dollar, a new currency, and a new world order.
Unless we fight back.

folks, stop pretending the "stock market" is real. it's not. it's the world's largest shell game, used around the world to transform stupidity into liquidity.

There going to chase Mark Cuban on insider trading for a lousy $650,000......and all those thieving scums that tanked this country are FREE....with BILLIONS of stolen dollars. Nothing makes sense to me. In reality when your on Cubans level, insider trading is part of the game. Money follows Money. The in-people are INSIDE. They talk...they trade. Its a total scam for the wealthy.
The regular investors are like the slot players for the casinos.
They make up the pile of cash for the rich to steal.

That's Plunder you hear coming from DC but the lightening will be found in your wallet.

Avast, our treasury has been plundered by neopirates. Give Paulson a parrot and an eye patch. Meanwhile our economy plummets toward the abyss off the end of a plank. We the people shiver our respective timbers. The booty will obviously be buried off-shore. Captain Bush won't get the hook soon enough.

The stock market is the "World's largest shell game?"

What's the alternative mechanism to allow businesses access to capital? Banks are notorious for their inability to fund start-ups and the current credit crunch demonstrates why the banking sector cannot be relied upon as the single source of working capital.

I guess we could let the federal government control all access to capital and quit pretending to believe in the free market.

Central Planning didn't work so well in the U.S.S.R., North Korea, Zimbabwe or Cuba. Maybe Obama could suceed where Mao Zedong failed?

I would rather watch the stock market lose half it's value every 10 years than throw in the towel on capitalism.

It's nice to see people awaken to the truth.

http://oregoneyes.blogspot.com/2008/03/working-group-on-financial-markets.html

What's the alternative mechanism to allow businesses access to capital?

you believe the stock market primarily exists to provide capital? oh my.

I would rather watch the stock market lose half it's value every 10 years than throw in the towel on capitalism.

capitalism's been in operation since long, long before the "stock market".

as for whether "capitalism" has failed, I think that was answered decades ago. 90% of wealth is now held by about 10-15% of humanity. the paltry bit left over is bread crumbs on the floor for the remaining 90% of us. guess we're just not trying hard enough.

or, influential enough to get the government to bail us out.

What's the alternative mechanism to allow businesses access to capital?

Any first year business student knows that the vast majority of businesses use debt, not stock, to finance capital "improvements". My finance textbook stated bluntly, and I've seen this confirmed elsewhere, that of every $100 traded in the stock market, roughly 30 cents! actually goes to the company whose shares were traded.

Think about it. The vast majority (99+%) of stock transactions that happen daily are for existing issues. If I sell you 100 shares of Intel for $50 a share, how much of that goes to Intel? Zero!

The stock market is a giant casino and, as in any casino, it's the amateurs who take the biggest fleecing.