Wall Street only goes one way

Good column by Felix Salmon today that should be read in full on how Wall Street is failing in its core public function of allocating capital efficiently. Do read it all but here's the money graf:

"At risk, then, is the shareholder democracy that America forged, slowly, over the past 50 years. Civilians, rather than plutocrats, controlled corporate America, and that relationship improved standards of living and usually kept the worst of corporate abuses in check. With America Inc. owned by its citizens, the success of American business translated into large gains in the stock portfolios of anybody who put his savings in the market over most of the postwar period."

In other words, it's not just deregulation in general that's the problem with Wall Street effectively running what's left of the capitalist economy. The big investors have rigged the game to the point that the wealth will never "trickle down" and there's no one to hold them accountable for their actions. The new velocity of money is a one way street that only leads up to those who need it the least. And they don't care how they get it, just as long as they get to keep it all for themselves.