Quit thinking his policies are intellectually honest or even helpful. Smoke, mirrors and overpriced used cars is what he offers.

“Step right up folks…..”

You don’t understand Obama’s proposal. It would prevent bank holding companies from investing securities on their own behalf (they would still be able to invest on behalf of their clients). In other words, it would return us to the laws that were in effect until 1999 when parts of the Glass-Steagall Act were repealed. The American economy functioned well before bank holding companies were allowed to speculate with our money, and it will function well again when they are stopped.

Mr. Epstein is just having you on. It is the presidents job to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” including those laws which regulated banking activities. Mr. Epstein knows this as well as everyone else. All of Mr. Epstein’s posts are similarly structured, with absurd statements and wild, illogical, and counter intuitive conclusions. He just gets a giggle watching people get their underwear in a bundle responding as if he were serious.

Speculation usually entails 1) using someone else’s money, 2) leveraging the initial capital (investors, bank’s, etc.) with borrowed money, 3) extreme short duration in holding period, often under a day.

Speculation destroys the economy, esp. since it shifts much needed capital to basically a bet. Day trading and program trading now constitute often over 50% of the NYSE daily trading. This has nothing to do with building companies, creating jobs, growing the economy.

Entrepreneur risk is entirely different: 1) entails your own money and TIME, 2) leverage is nearly impossible for start-ups, 3) often time horizon is up to 5 years, and it is not a -0- sum game where there must be a loser to have a winner.

Get your facts straight if you are going to write article here. Otherwise you sound like the PR department for Goldman Sachs.

Why don’t we thus change the tax code to make losses on gambling and playing Lotto deductible? That’s risk, isn’t it? What sort of nonsensical commentary is this? Why not re-inflate the housing bubble and bet on housing prices go up? Isn’t that risk-should we start that again?

What needs to be encouraged is a sensible approach to risk-businesses that want to expand with sound business plans are risks worth taking; the bundling of securities based on a Ponzi scheme and then sold to investors who are assured by ratings agencies that the securities carry a certain level of risk, when in fact, neither the financial institution that created the instrument nor the agency rating the instrument nor the investor buying the instrument understands the instrument and the probability of being repaid is what got us into this mess to begin with. If you can’t comprehend this simple truth I don’t see why anyone should treat anything written in your post as credible.