Conspiracy Theories

No, this is not about that dreadful day in Dallas when Jack Kennedy was assasinated: it's bigger!

When I was just a boy, I discovered that if I had a question about something, several other people did also. I was never alone in ignorance. So, if a well educated, experienced, business oriented news junkie like me suddenly and grudgingly comes to the conclusion that he is, after all, a babe in the woods who has spent most of his seventy-five years as an unwitting victim, that's newsworthy. And that's where I am. Others are sure to be there with me, by the millions.

I'm writing now, not about paranoia, but about clear, hard facts that indicate a vast majority of the American public has been duped and victimized in business, politics and current issues for decades! No, I don't believe NASA staged the moon visits or that 9-11 was an Israeli plot. But I do believe that Wall Street is a giant fraud and that Congress has been largely bought and paid for so laws could be quietly passed that enrich just a tiny power elite. Wall Street owns D.C.

The proof of this seemingly cynical appraisal is everywhere today. The Great Recession has helped shine a bright light on many of the tricks and gimmicks practiced by banks, credit card companies, health insurance and drug companies, etc. Thousands of lobbyists have manipulated and dominated our government and our people. promoting myths like increasing the minimum wage would destroy businesses and indeed they helped to keep wages stagnant for 30 years! They turned regulators and circumvented regulations. The result has been nothing less than pillage of the public. And they do it with glee and disdain for their uninitiated victims. Remember those Enron guys laughing as they rigged energy markets? They were the "smartest guys in the room," right? But they got caught after enormous damage had been done. Usually, no one is held accountable or punished and often when they are they come back in a few years. Justice is inconvenient politically. The norm today is that execs of companies that fail receive bloated bonuses as if they had managed in triumph. Think Lehman, Goldman, Merrill, B of A, AIG! The list is endless. Hedge fund managers are raking in billions even now, as the Dow rebounds towards 11,000. The damage their managements have done is incalculable not only in the U. S. but in Britain, Ireland, Spain and Greece. Everywhere greed is worshipped.

Let me be more specific about this great disillusionment. When the average person invests, he looks for an undervalued, stock with bright prospects and competent management. He will surely check price performance charts and earnings per share relative to other similar securities. How 20th century! How uninitiated! The real players are counseled by mathematicians with formulas and indecies that have nothing to do with what used to be investment basics. But they're the ones that count today. These Wall Street whiz kids are catering to the big players and using tools and tactics even the likes of Robert Rubin don't understand. After decades of coaxing Joe Sixpack into the market, Wall Streeters today couldn't care less about him and his stupid friends, like me.

Let me go further. The average American has been deeply disappointed by virtually all of his interfaces with business and government. He may have been victimized by his realtor, his mortgage broker, and his contractors. The government agencies who are supposed to be watchdogging his interests have let him down egregiously: from the NYSE to the SEC which couldn't spot Bernie Maddoff, to the Fed under Alan Greenspan. Home appraisers can no longer be trusted and neither can the credit agencies like Moody or Standard & Poor. Balance sheets mean little, since debt can be hidden and postponed, not only for coorporations but sovereign nations as well! Accountants, even the biggest and best, are too subservient to their masters for whom they are also doing private, personal work. Today, we can't even have confidence that our food and toys are safe. Greed calls the shots in everything and corruption is everywhere from the Boy Scouts to sports heros. Even our cars may be unsafe. Where can anyone turn? Well, there's the church, isn't there? Isn't there? Be sure, however, to trust only the Lord, Jesus Christ. Too many tears have been shed over his wayward priests and bishops, grandiose evangelists and saintly hypocrites.

How is this different from ancient Rome? Not much, I would think. But I will never lose faith in America or hope for the future. These are very hard, very dangerous times, but all is not lost. What the world needs now follows and it is much more than "Love, Sweet Love."