I find myself in agreement with a Paul Krugman column:
Yet surely I’m not the only person to ask the obvious question: How different, really, is Mr. Madoff’s tale from the story of the investment industry as a whole?
The financial services industry has claimed an ever-growing share of the nation’s income over the past generation, making the people who run the industry incredibly rich. Yet, at this point, it looks as if much of the industry has been destroying value, not creating it. And it’s not just a matter of money: the vast riches achieved by those who managed other people’s money have had a corrupting effect on our society as a whole.
One of the bigger lies in America is the idea that the stock market has anything to do with either capitalism or the free market. It’s not. It’s a complex institution designed to intercept the money that would otherwise go to successful and productive entrepeneurs and reroute it to the bankers.
Think about it. If an entrepeneur has an idea, or a technology, why shouldn’t he be able to seek investment and sell shares directly to interested parties via the Internet? Entrepeneurs appear to be figuring out that Wall Street is little more than a gang of bandits, as they’re increasingly preferring to pursue acquisitions rather than going public.