Wall Street’s Invisible Gorilla is killing America’s soul

Commentary:   Why millions of Main Street investors cannot see they’re destroying capitalism

MarketWatch
June 22, 2010
By Paul B. Farrell

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) — On Lake Wobegon “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average” says the great American satirist Garrison Keillor in his “Prairie Home Companion” world.

But doesn’t that also describe all the too-greedy-to-fail fatheads running Wall Street? And, unfortunately, Main Street America’s 95 million irrational and self-sabotaging investors?

Yes, all of us! We’re Americans. Don’t confuse us with the facts, with reality. We’re the greatest in history, a legend in our own minds. And a rapidly mutating virus is spreading this lethal pandemic far beyond the shores of Lake Wobegon. Yes, folks, the “Lake Wobegon Effect” is hard-wired in America’s brain, an illusion of superiority, a smug arrogance where each knows we are the best, the chosen ones.

Warning: The Lake Wobegon Effect is the single best summary of today’s stock market psychology, high-frequency trading, behavioral economics theories and the new science of irrationality … and it’s sucking the life out of America’s soul. Here, listen to more of these arrogant musings surfacing everywhere from deep in our collective brains:     more …