In all seriousness. - Stock market question.

[SmileyRose]

What "joe six pack" (SNORT) in their right mind would entrust what little money the elite allow them to have to those crazy people who start screaming "sell sell sell" every time Paulson passes wind? Even the money I roll over every month (which is 99.99999% of what I make) goes into a bank full of big shots who swore on a stack of treasury bonds that they really really care about me, will keep my money nice and safe so it's there 3 weeks from now when I have to pay the light bill - and best of all they won't be mean and stick me with a bunch of fees just to touch my own money. But lo and behold they took my measily couple thou a month and gambled it all away on gum and candy.

And yet, they stand there on the TEEEVEEE and tell me to sit tight, keep the few thousand it took me 25 years of working to save in the hands of the drunken gamblers - and keep my food and light bill money with the liars and theives.

What is a hardworkin' josephine six pack to do?

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. If you have a retirement account, a 401K or a pension fund

guess where it is?

You guessed it

Why the SS should NEVER EVER go there

[SmileyRose]

2. My point exactly.

My retirement savings are seriously small potatoes in the world scheme of things. If those little shits left me destitute they would not even notice let alone care.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Individually they are but in NORMAL times, and these are not it

yours, mine and millions of others help to get money into those funds that can pay pension through the magic of interest and share taking

Now for that to work (and we can get into a policy debate of whether funds should just do T-Bills and municipal bonds or also play in the exchange) we need a lot of regulation back

The kind of regulation that was removed over the last few decades, since the "reagan revolution."

Once those regulations are back in place we need to have that national discussion on how to handle retirement funds... but on the bright side, the privatization of Social Security is now dead and buried for a generation or so

[WCGreen]

3. So true...

Anyone over 50 who is heavily in Stocks is jst asking for it...

[B Calm]

5. I'm beginning to think it doesn't matter what age you are!

[Alpharetta]

4. Eventually your question will be addressed

After the crash of 1920's, FDR instituted controls which were needed to instill "confidence in the markets".

The crooks pretended the swaps had them covered for any bad loans. Then they kept the swaps off the books or improperly valued so we couldn't tell how badly the crooks were leveraged.

The auditors of these crooks (Ernst & Young, KPMG, PriceWatershouse, and Deloitte Touche) have so far avoided blame in this fiasco. They deserve their heads on a platter, just as Arthur Andersen did in the aftermath of the Enron fraud.

Obama will need to go into FDR mode and clean this mess up. FDR created the SEC. Obama needs to get the SEC back doing its job, proactively shaping accounting standards for whatever new financial instruments the crooks invent. The crooks will decry "regulation", but the rest of us will scoff at their tears.

Once we see honest accounting, we'll see confidence restored in the markets.

Edited for minor readability changes