by Jeff Wood
Make no mistake, the United States is not run by a just government. The Federal government does not represent your interests. It is not run by the people, and it is not by any stretch of the imagination run for the people. The United States government is run by the rich, and by the corrupt. The machinations of this nation are overseen by the oppressors of entire generations. They have kept us down for centuries with myths of opportunity, but America is only a land of opportunity for a select few. Your fate in the American system was established before you were born, because behind the scenes America is run by a Caste System.
Though American social stratification seems to be ad-hoc on the surface, peek under the hood and you will see a very carefully orchestrated system of control that separates the haves from the have-nots, and keeps them permanently separated. The SEC keeps the investing class apart from the working class using subtly worded regulations which they claim are intended to protect the working class. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Rule 501 of Regulation D, that’s the bouncer that will keep you and everyone like you out of the VIP section of the investing club for the rest of your life. It establishes two classes of investor: Accredited investors, who are allowed to invest in virtually unregulated securities like hedge funds, credit default swaps and private equity; Then there’s unaccredited investors, these are the working class folks like me and you, who get railroaded into investing in heavily regulated, significantly less lucrative securities such as mutual funds, stocks and treasury bonds.
The SEC claims that these regulations are there to protect us. They say that lucrative hedge funds are simply too risky to allow investment from “unsophisticated” individuals such as you or I. So how do they determine whether or not you’re sophisticated enough to receive their accreditation? There must be some kind of licensing exam or educational requirement, right? Wrong. You have to be a millionaire. I kid you not, the sole criterion to determine eligibility for accredited investor status is that you must have $1 million or more in personal assets (this figure will soon be raised to $2.5 million)
Are you starting to see how this works? Rich people are allowed to put their money in a hedge fund, which can get away with whatever it wants in the pursuit of profit. Poor people have to put their IRA into mutual funds, which can’t turn around without filing paperwork and asking for government permission. Is it any surprise that your retirement savings have remained flat, or worse, dropped precipitously? Are you starting to see that the wealth gap in America is widening not in spite of the government, but because of it?
Similar regulations prevent small businesses from trading securities profitably. The SEC defines a Qualified Institutional Buyer (QIB) as an institution that manages at least $100 million in assets (Banks can get away with just $25 million). Think you’re a pretty savvy trader, and you want to strike out on your own? Don’t bother unless you’ve got the backing of the legacy financial system, or a generous uncle who happens to be an oil tycoon. Without a QIB license your dreams of competing with the big guys are never going to be anything but dreams.
The SEC, an institution originally intended to protect Americans from the depredations of malicious financiers, has joined in the fun of looting our nation’s people. Why wouldn’t they help Wall Street line its pockets, while Main Street worries about how they’re going to heat their houses and feed their children? Food and energy prices have already been subtracted from their Core-CPI statistics, so they have carte-blanche to ignore the suffering their regulatory capture is causing the people of this country.
It’s time for the American people to wake up. The world of high finance isn’t a well orchestrated machine beyond our comprehension that is managed by sophisticated geniuses, it’s a shell game just convoluted enough to confuse you and keep you from lynching the con men responsible. It’s time to start fighting back against government complicity in the fleecing of America, if we don’t take a stand now our children will one day wake up homeless on the continent our fathers conquered.
