It's Almost Midnight. Do You Know Where Your Money Is?

Before we return you to your regularly scheduled summering, just think for a moment where your retirement assets are.  If you are a public-school teacher in Maine, or for that matter any state employee, your are partially invested in Wall Street's biggest banks.  And if you are a taxpayer in Maine, you are backstopping those investments.  How do you feel about that?

Are you comfortable that your financial security depends on the continuing hegemony of white-collar racketeers?  Consider the recent headlines.  Peddling fraudulent loans, then securitizing the loans with fraudulent disclosures.  Gouging delinquent borrowers.  Colluding to rig bids in the municipal bond market.  Strong-arming credit-rating agencies.  Buying influence in Congress and in the White House.  Manipulating interest rates.  Front-running markets.  Overcharging clients.  Betting against clients.  The list goes on and on.

The time is coming when the banksters will get theirs.  When they do, equity holders will get crushed, making them both ashamed AND poorer.

MainePERS, smell the coffee.

"Wall Street has so many friends in Washington that meaningful reform is impossible."

--Elizabeth Warren, nominee for U.S. Senate

Washington Post op-ed