There were some interesting conversations at the last Green Drinks. One that really stood out was from one of our business leaders, Robert Ellis. He's the director of the Wells College business program. He liked the idea that the "occupy wallstreet" people now refer to themselves as the "99 percenters". Since he's worked with some of the wealthy 1%, he' s seen the enormous difference between them and the rest of us. He's also written about how hedge funds are taking advantage of churn in the equity markets to make enoromous profits from retirement funds by shorting securities held in IRAs. It truly was a revealing look into the stock market.
Another idea floated was the idea of a state declaring bankruptcy from their mandates. Alabama likely will be the first state to do this, followed closely by New York. When this happens, every obligation from pensions, bonds or worker contracts would be up for re-negotiation. It would be a huge disruption. Of course, one way of avoiding that fate might be to have a sales tax for transactions in the secondary market. The idea is simple. The only stock sales that could possibly create jobs for people are stocks issued by the company itself. Further price increases don't go to a company, only to speculators. Since such sales in the secondary market are just speculation, they should have a straight sales tax. By doing this, there would be more "buy and hold" investing rather than speculative investing.
Other conversations seemed more normal for the group, having to do with issues such as energy, food and health. Ideas were exchanged, contacts were made and a good time seemed to be had by all.
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