Monday, February 23, 2009

Bonus babies

Wall Street spends billions in bonuses for its mostly (entirely?) random top performers. What does billions of dollars buy? For their customers, not a goddamn thing. Their margin over the cold boring average is eaten up in taxes and in fees. Of course, fees are what the street actually cares about. They're playing with other people's money to enrich themselves. Sweet!

This of course is why scam artists investment professionals are so obsessed with three things:

  • Lowering already low capital gains taxes
  • Finding new "innovative" investment vehicles, many or most of which innovate only in sleight of hand with risk
  • Deregulation
Conclusion: To a first approximation, there is no smart money.

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