Only market fundamentalists saw that idea as anything other than a massive windfall for Wall Street — and a tremendous risk for Main Street — and yet many people are essentially doing that right now by allowing their retirement funds to be invested in the stock market for them.

The whole point of the stock market is that there *is* no guarantee that one’s investment won’t go down — as illustrated by the bursting of the “New Economy” (a.k.a., dot.com) bubble a few short years ago — which is something that people tend to forget. Wall Street is a casino, with the odds equally (if not more so) stacked in favor of the “house”, which (as in a casino) are the people who run it.

To the degree that fraud was committed, there should be criminal prosecution of those responsible, and (to the greatest extent possible) restitution to those defrauded. But if it’s simply a question of getting in on a stock (or housing or other commodity) bubble and then losing money when the bubble bursts, I fail to see the injustice in that.

What’s necessary is that some people lose money — unfortunately, it’s (again) usually not the guys who run these rackets — in order for others to learn that the stock market is a fixed game. If more people were paying attention and were less quick to throw money at these guys (especially during the recurrent booms), the whole system would be much more rational and sustainable.