The only reason I did not start another biotech company after my first one went under was that the experience showed me just how amoral the investment community is. I do not wish to associate with them anymore. Spitzer nails that complete lack of principles. Ironically, he’s free of them now, too.

It’s a curious thing. I think that in a similar, but very odd, way senators Craig and Vitter are also free of that crowd. I almost applaud them for staying in the senate after they were outed. Their presence isn’t as much of a smear on the senate as it thumbs their noses at the real oppressors in our society.

Breaking free is liberating, but it’s also sad that this blocks your ability to be a real entrepreneur.

It really shows how Wall Street isn’t really about resource allocation in the textbook way; it’s really about allocating everyone’s resources right into the hands of Wall Street firms. It’s a slick con game in many ways. They’re somewhat like Amway in that they’re very suspiciously like con men, but they maintain enough of a veneer of respectability.

If you look at two charts you can see the effects plainly. One shows that since the Reagan era all of the nation’s wealth has gone into the hands of a very few people, most people’s incomes have been flat. The other shows the growth in the financial industry over that same time period. They account for a much larger share of America’s corporate profits than before.

The financial industry has essentially learned how to skim EVERYTHING off the top.

http://www.aztlan.net/israeli_sexpionage.htm

Will the two million felonies (50 USC 1809) of the warrantless wiretapping program between 2002 and 2008 ever be prosecuted?

No, not even feasible after the FISA Amendment Act. The acts were deemed authorized and appropriate sufficiently so as to obviate civil liability; how can you ever make out a case of criminal liability with a beyond a reasonable doubt standard if the civil burden of preponderance of the evidence cannot be met? Answer: you can’t.