I've always liked the anger in this line from The Police's Synchronicity II:

"And every single meeting with his so-called superior/
Is a humiliating kick in the crotch"

I think it completely captures the feeling of powerlessness that all of us feel at one time or another in our lives, as well as the anger we feel at being powerless.

I thought of it today while reading this article from Paul Farrell about how the small investor has been kicked to the curb by Wall Street.

During the 90s, especially the dot-com years, investors were throwing money at the markets, making massive returns on companies with but a wisp of an actual business plan. Everyone was a market genius--we were in the game!

But then the markets crashed, and a lot of our money went bye-bye. We didn't feel quite so confident anymore, and our delusions of grandeur quickly melted as we realized it was time to start playing office politics again because we'd be working a few more years than we had thought back when we were staring adoringly at our still-skyrocketing portfolios.

That's bad, but where the real kick in the crotch comes in for the average investor is in the fact that Wall Street makes money whether you win or lose. Farrell argues that Wall Street simply moved on when the indexes crashed, spending more and more of its time and money on investing in instruments you & I don't understand, like derivatives, and generally laughing all the way to the bank:

"This shift was obvious last year as Wall Street insiders split $20 billion in bonuses while their Main Street clients were left wallowing in a stock market what was still well below its highs of six years earlier."

It's enough to make you want to flip the bird to Wall Street and take your money elsewhere. But, of course, where else would you take it? Real estate, maybe, but that requires some knowledge, hard work and luck. Bonds, CDs, etc. Not going to make a lot there, though yes it should be part of your portfolio. Gold? I wouldn't mind having my own brick, but I don't know that that's the answer, and I don't think you ever actually get to touch the gold anyway.

So we're stuck with Wall Street to help us fund our retirements, knowing full well that Wall Street doesn't much care if we win or lose as long as they get to play the game.