Facebook's Faceplant

Is anybody surprised that the much anticipated Facebook IPO is now mired in controversy?

Recents news about the biggest IPO in history reveals that it was overpriced and SOME investors received information about Facebook that wasn't available to the rest of us, the Great Unwashed.

BIG SURPRISE.

Well, all that counts in the end I guess is that the hoodie wearing Youngest Billionaire Ever, Mark Zuckerberg now has more money than God.

GREED, GREED, GREED.

Over and over again Wall Street and the Insiders sell us the same snake oil.

P. T. Barnum said it:

"There's a sucker born every minute."

There was a time when I worked in the Investment Services Department of a major Bank (Mellon) that I believed that Wall Street and those who worked there were honest.  Not so folks, they're all crooks.  Yes, I said it.  THEY'RE ALL CROOKS.  

So now it's Ground Hog Day all over again.  The Greedheads hype up a business that PRODUCES NOTHING and we fools fall for it.

You want to invest in a company that actually produces a great product?  Buy Apple.

In the meantime, I thought I would never dislike anybody more than Mr. Softee, aka Bill Gates.

Move over Mr. Softee, you have been replaced by an even more odious and despicable creature, Mark Zuckerberg.

AIG

About an hour from now Edward Liddy, the CEO of AIG is going to testify before Congress. He will be answering questions about the $165 million in bonuses to AIG employees. Like most of the country, I am mad as hell about this whole mess. What is it that AIG and Wall Street doesn’t get about giving out bonuses when their companies have failed? WHAT DON’T THEY GET?

While everyone I know who has jobs has taken a hit in this economy, the Wall Street greed monsters continue on as if nothing has happened to our economy. I also fault the new Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner. He and his ilk are all a part of the Wall Street greed monsters. They are totally out of touch with the real America.

Their excuses are “We have to keep good people.” Another excuse is “They have contracts which we can’t break.” Hey, they had no problem changing the contracts of the UAW auto workers. That didn’t seem to be a problem did it?

For the past ten years I have come to the conclusion that our country has been systemically looted by the greed monsters of Wall Street. From the popping of the Internet bubble in 2001 to the popping of the real estate bubble in 2006, I lost an embarrassingly amount of money. I fell for the switch and bait I’m ashamed to admit. Fortunately for me I have managed to hold onto my new home even as I narrowly avoided foreclosure by taking on a 30 year mortgage which will be paid off when I’m 95 years old. I blame no one but myself for falling prey to the false promise of riches and the good life. I should have known better. I was lucky that I didn't fall prey to the system that robs ordinary, hard working Americans like me.

Unfortunately for many in this country they were not as fortunate. Many of them have lost their homes. Many have lost most or all of their life savings. Many have little or no health insurance. And yet, in the midst of all of this the executives at AIG continue business as usual and feel that they don’t need to sacrifice but to continue business as usual. These people are criminals. In my mind they are no better than bank robbers because that is just what they are doing. They are robbing the bank. They are looting their company before it goes under. For too many years these Wall Street criminals have gotten away with obscene profits just for manipulating profits. Just as the French Revolution put an end the excesses of the Bourbon dynasty, the outrage over the AIG green will hopefully put an end to the obscene profits that the Wall Street has been raking in for too many years.

By the way, we don’t have time for the Republicans running around now trying to lay the blame on Obama and Geithner. We have enough with the political game playing. The Republicans don’t get it either. They lost. Get over it.