T,

Believe it or not, I didn't read your post, I was simply thinking along the same lines--

I can't spend as much time as it really takes to keep up on all of this, and I tend to be a little quicker at at understanding these sort of things than a lot of others-- This may be the real root of the problem--it is all so far from the common realm of understanding that the only group people with a clear picture of what is happening are the ones who are benefitting from it--

The public at large has no idea what their interest is, because the mechanism i one that they don't understand--it is a lot like out mortgage analogy--most people have no understanding of how mortagages work(I am in the process of selling a house, and I can assure you that most realtors don't understand anything about the mechanisms that are involved)

I won't get into social or political philosophy here, except to say that part of my concern is that from this Sonny Bono thing to the rash of IPO's and the going number of megamergers, there is a lot of short scramling for cash flow that comes at the cost of long term destabilization of the existing system of relationships--

For the average person, it means that we will have to pay more, and get less--