Wall Street and Financial Elite: Examples of Bad Behavior

Introduction

I fully support the movement of Occupy Wall Street and related “occupy” gatherings around the nation.

A common criticism of the movement is that the people of the movement do not know what they are protesting.

I counter that criticism: The people DO know what they are protesting. They can’t always articulate it, they might not have the facts at their fingertips, but they know.

The people of this movement are protesting the repeated criminal acts and unethical behavior of the financial elite. These actions have destroyed successful businesses, depleted communities, stolen investors money, and worsened the financial state of millions of Americans. These actions have gone unpunished. These criminal acts are sometimes rewarded and praised. This is what the Occupy Wall Street movement is protesting.

However, in order to aid the movement, the citizen researchers and civic activists must help the people articulate the problem. We must gather examples of the criminal acts and unethical behavior of the financial elite.

In this article I will provide an overview of some of their criminal acts.

A. Venture Capitalists stealing money from investors

There are many Venture Capitalists who have no desire to create a business. They will admit as much when you talk to them personally.

These Venture Capitalists have a method for making money: They put their name and their money behind a new business. Then they get other people to invest in the company. The Venture Capitalists manipulate the stocks, manipulate the financial reports, and make the business appear a grand success. Then the Venture Capitalists pull their money out, with a substantial profit.

The Venture Capitalists get wealthy, while the business falters and goes under. Small investors (regular people who work full time but invest on the side) then lose their money.

In addition, because this business was deemed a failure, few investors or banks will take a chance on a similar business. The fact that it was deliberately run into the ground for the profit of a few elitists at the top is a fact that few people know. The general consensus is “don’t invest in that type of company again”, which makes new start-ups (and future economic growth in the community) much less likely.

This type of activity falls under deceptive business practices. It is a type of bait-and-switch. Law enforcement agencies should punish this behavior, but nothing ever happens. The Venture Capitalists run free to perform this deceptive (and destructive) act again and again.

B. Financial elitists stealing money from the government

The government often gives grants, loans, and other types of economic stimulus money to private companies. However, this money usually goes to the financial elite, who take the money only for personal gain.

First, the biggest amounts of money given out by the federal government tend to go to the most wealthy people. The top people at the government are friends with the financial elite. This results in money being given to the wealthy elite rather than to a deserving company.

Second, many of these recipients have no intention of using that money to build a business. The business is just a front for the real activity: pocketing government money.

The recipients of the government money will pretend to run a business, for a while. Yet if you look closely you will see extremely high salaries, padded travel expenses, and business expenses that are really personal pleasures. Yet there never really was a business. The business only exists as long as the government money is coming in.

Third, the business begins to falter. It could be from the fact that there never really was a business, and very little product was sold. Or it could be that the government money ran out. Or it could be that the high salaries couldn’t support even the smallest pretense of a business.

At this point the government (the taxpayers) have increased the wallets of the financial elite, without anything in return. In addition, the community is disappointed - they believed in that business and the economic growth it would bring. Employees at the bottom worked hard yet are now unemployed. And the thought of anyone investing in a similar company in the future seems unlikely.

Do the taxpayers get their money back? Not usually. The political leaders are friends with the financial elite, so nobody is ever going to investigate, and no one will be required to return the money.

(More examples of Bad Behavior will be written in future blogs)

Clarification of Who we are talking about

Remember we are talking about the financial elite. We are NOT talking about hard working entrepreneurs and employees. We are not talking about the people throughout a business who grow the company through their passion and dedication.

Rather, we are talking about the criminal element. We are talking about the financial elite who deliberately steal money, who manipulate markets, who knowingly break existing laws, and who don’t care about destroying communities. Those financial criminals are the people we are talking about.

Wall Street Protests: I Support the Movement

I fully support the movement of Occupy Wall Street and related “occupy” gatherings around the nation.

The financial elite have been harming our economy in serious ways over many years. These financial elitists get wealthy at the expense of the people, and the nation.

These elitists obtain their wealth not through hard work over a period of years, but through repeated criminal and unethical behavior.

These financial elitists never face the consequences of their actions. They rarely pay for their crimes. In fact, they are often rewarded and praised.

The people have known about the problem for decades, yet only now is there a movement which has taken hold.

A common criticism of the movement (again by those in political and financial power) is that the people of the movement do not know what they are protesting. I counter that criticism: Yes the people DO know what they are protesting. They can’t always articulate it, they might not have the facts at their fingertips, but they know.

The people of this movement are protesting the repeated criminal acts and unethical behavior of the financial elite. These actions have destroyed successful businesses, depleted communities, stolen investors money, and worsened the financial state of millions of Americans. These actions have gone unpunished, even rewarded and praised. This is what the Occupy Wall Street movement is protesting.

And I fully support it.

However, in order to aid the movement, researchers and civic activists must help the people articulate the problem. We must gather examples of the criminal acts and unethical behavior of the financial elite. We must show the laws written by the elite for the elite, and the criminal acts unpunished by the government. We must take back our government and our finances from the criminals who are the financial elite.