Juggling Dynamite

Chris Hedges is an expert on the history of revolt and social change movements. He has covered many of the major uprisings of the past 40 years as a front-line journalist. Depending on one’s sensibilities, he is certainly not easy to listen to and usually upsets most sides of the political spectrum. But agree and disagree, Hedges is incredibly articulate and thought-provoking. In this interview he educates on the historical consequences of an uneven distribution of wealth: destruction, violence and revolt and what the Occupy movement, with all the usual human blemishes, should be about. Here is a direct link.

Banking analyst Meredith Whitney and Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard discuss the costs of current Federal Reserve policy. Here is a direct link.
Bullard also explained why he’d like to see more economic data before deciding on “big action” at the next meeting of policy makers. Here is a direct link.

This clip is a must watch for everyone using an investment “advisor” to manage their savings. One of the most complex questions that must be confronted is why so many intelligent, hard working people continue to place their trust, hope and capital in the hands of sell-side firms even after they have suffered through cycles of repeated loss.

Hard as it is to accept, I have come to realize that many people do not wish to see the truth. Many prefer to rationalize that they have suffered from one bad apple rather than a whole orchard that is rotten. It is irrational to move on to a new investment firm with the same approach and philosophy as the last and look for different results. Whether the motivation be desperation, naivete or willful blindness, financial suicide is a sad thing to witness.

“Many of those who work on Wall Street go through a process in which they gradually learn that what is perceived as “smart investing” is often unbelievably dumb.

Specifically, they learn that many of the recommendations that Wall Street makes–and the transactions that Wall Street gets paid to facilitate–are not in their clients’ best interests.

And once they learn that, they face a choice:

Continue to make the same bad recommendations and trades.

Or change the way they do business, often in exchange for a lower initial salary.

Here is a direct link.