That's part of the narrative I'm talking about. We tell ourselves: "It's only because of fraud, corruption, and exploitation" that all this money is flowing from main street to wall street.
The statement was that "We like the idea of letting everyone transact freely, but we are uncomfortable with the "winner take all" implication of that policy"
But this is not true. We are not uncomfortable with free transactions resulting in winning - we are uncomfortable with "free" being the state of the system whereby the winner is able to do so because there is no oversight over the WAY in which these winnings are achieved.
namely, that one side of the transaction is exploiting their position of data/information superiority for their benefit and as a result, those who are under the delusion that they have a chance of making out well in the transaction suffer the reality of being the victim of having less data/information/sophistication.
We all want "FREE" transactions - but we want them on a level playing field.
THe fact is that there is no level playing field when it comes to the pinnacle of the monetary system.
The system is DESIGNED to not be in anyone's favor but wall street.
Further, they have worked very very hard at tremendous expense to ensure that the regulatory system, bodies and laws are all skewed in their favor!
Ignorance has so badly corrupted the minds of the world that even the understanding of the term Free is lost on most.
There can be an hour long rant on how exactly unfree every one truly is due to debt-slavery.
My point is that there are a lot of things short of fraud that we consider "meritocracy" (and having superior information and superior analysis usually falls into that category), but those things systematically stack transactions in favor of the parties that can afford to buy them. Even if you have zero fraud, zero lobbying, etc, you'd still see wealth flowing to Wall Street from Main Street.
I am not saying that using or having a better position of data or information is wrong or illegal. I am saying that how they got there in the first place, and what they have done to ensure its perpetuity for them is what is illegal/wrong/exploitative and abused.
The worst criminals of the bunch are those in supposed positions of regulatory authority that are really there to protect the interests of big money.
This includes GS employees setup as Obama's economic advisory.
(Note: often people make the mistake of saying "well do you expect him not to hire/appoint people with intimate knowledge of how the financial system works?" -- No, I expect him to hire/appoint people with express knowledge of how the system works and how it is exploited and abused so that they can identify and go after criminal fraudulent activity.
When you hire/appoint those BENEFITING from the actions of the industry - it protects the criminal/exploitative activity!)
Because we force them to, through 401k's and the like.
My point is that it's not just that the big guys have better programs...they have better programs and better data and it's frequently the data that makes the difference.
There's a popular saying on Wall Street: YBGIBG. It means "you'll be gone, I'll be gone"... by the time the scam gets exposed, the folks who perpetuated will have received their bonuses and be long gone.