Wall Street's Killer Instinct Spells Death Knell for Jobs

[Crewleader]

February 8, 2010

This Trend is Not Your Friend
Wall Street's Killer Instinct Spells Death Knell for Jobs

By PAM MARTENS

I think it’s time to take Wall Street literally: they’ve made it abundantly clear they have an insatiable appetite for killing things: the housing market, the financial system, the economy, reform legislation, the next generation’s future.

Wall Street is so steeped in destruction that the symbols of death are everywhere. Wall Street calls the big newspaper ads they take out to herald the launch of their market offerings a “tombstone.” (To understand how appropriate that is, consider the billions in bond and stock offerings they raise for Big Tobacco.) What does Wall Street call the completion of a buy or sell order: an “execution.” (Think of how many derivative trades they “executed” for the now crippled, life support patients Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG; or the off balance sheet vehicles they created for Enron, WorldCom, and dozens of now bankrupt companies.)

Wall Street calls an order to complete a trade without any reduction in quantity a “fill or kill.” This could just as reasonably be called a “fill or cancel” order but it’s so much more fun for the thundering herd to race around a trading floor screaming “kill it, kill it!”

What is the benefit to Wall Street in killing things or bringing the share price of companies to near worthless? Tails they win; heads you lose. Wall Street can and does make enormous profits on bets that share prices will decline (shorting), that companies will disappear (credit default swaps), that the economy will crater (interest rate swaps). And there’s a slogan on Wall Street: the trend is your friend. When it’s clear the bull is lying in the center of the ring (think Lehman’s death and the Merrill Lynch shotgun wedding on September 15, 2008), Wall Street moves its bets to the downside.

http://www.counterpunch.org/martens03082010.html

[BeyondGeography]

1. Highly recommended

Always loved the term "exit strategy," code for take the money and get the fuck out of town. I've been inhabiting Wall Street-influenced work environments for two decades, and they run on bogus "narratives" designed to make things look better (and more valuable) than they actually are. All so the owners can cash out at a premium. And it's all running out of steam.

Financialization has failed and it is dragging us down, which is why government needs to intervene. This is one of many great lines from the piece:

With each new $100 billion job creation program from the government, we acknowledge that Wall Street isn't creating companies that create jobs.