Wall Street May Be Cheering but the Rest of Us Are Not

Now that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has regained 10,000, a feat one year in the making, Wall Street has plenty to cheer about. It is ironic that it made the mark, rising 144 points today on news that JPMorgan Chase posted a third quarter profit of $3,600,000,000, far exceeding expectations. So the bailouts worked, the financial institutions are back to serious business, raking in the cash as usual. Things are so good that Goldman Sachs, AIG and others are poised to hand out record bonuses in the billions of dollars, more than in 2007 when the economy was still apparently booming.

Unfortunately, this does not sit well for many of us, Wall Street may be cheering but the rest of us are not. Why on earth did we expect these institutions to have a heart and be grateful that we saved them? Too big to fail has created unprecedented levels of arrogance on the part of these financial institutions that they have made a mockery of us all. These institutions are not lending to us. They have increased their fees and interest rates on their credit cards. They have revoked our credit lines and so on. They are simply gouging us on every level and they are rewarding themselves for it.

I feel bad for the President but the rest of us on Main Street did not end up benefiting, absolutely nothing trickled down.