OPINION: Magdalena - 2,100 Miles From Wall Street

Magdalena Potluck
By Don Wiltshire

While trying to fall asleep the other night, an image kept reoccurring to me: the Wall Street traders in their shirt sleeves, talking on their headphones, yelling at the big board, throwing crumpled papers to the floor. Who were they talking to? Why were they yelling at the board? Were they happy in their work? How much do they get paid? What does all of this mean to us?
Increasingly, this “floor show” is just that: a theatrical stunt to keep the public mesmerized and excited about the prospect of making money with money. It’s designed to put a human face on making money at the expense of the real workers out here in the “boonies.” The real work of stock trading is being done backstage on banks of computers. Take it from an old theater techy: the show must go on!
For those of you who still have your heart set on being an NYSE Trader, the cost for a yearly license is now $40,000. There are only 1,366 positions open, so you better hurry. How much you make for you and your clients is strictly up to you, your greed and your cunning. You’ll also be pleased to learn that the NYSE is now offering the services of Supplemental Liquidity Providers (SLPs) for those of you with not quite enough capital to snag that real buy on GE at $16.63.
Around the block from the current NYSE trading floor on Wall Street is the original NYSE building on Broad Street. It’s a magnificent neoclassical building designed by George B. Post in 1901. The facade sports six enormous Corinthian columns which support a pediment sculpture designed in 1903 by John Quincy Adams Ward. It’s title: Integrity Protecting the Works of Man. (Hummmm.) The 22-foot high figure of Integrity with classic gown and winged hat, is shown waving her protective arms over rather gaunt, nude male figures representing Agriculture and Mining to her left and Science, Industry and Invention to her right.
There is a pregnant pioneer woman (fully clothed) thrown in for good measure. The combined weight of all of this marble statuary, 90 tons, not including all of that irony, proved to be more than even the Corinthian columns could bear.
In 1936, the statuary was replaced by lead-coated replicas which weighed in at only 10 tons. Should the title of this work now be changed to Lead-Coated Replica of Integrity Protecting the Works of Man?
The only thing in Magdalena that we’ve got to compare to that is the 1908 BANK pediment over the now defunct Evett’s Café. But we do have something that New York City doesn’t have: the magnificent Magdalena Mountains. I can guarantee that we won’t be replacing them with lead-coated replicas any time soon. In all fairness, New York City does have one thing that Magdalena does not: good cheese Danish; a small price to pay.
So where did all of that integrity go? Buying stock in a company used to a way to lend money to a company that you trusted and believed in. You would be rewarded with dividends and a share in the company as it prospered and grew. The present day stock trader is only concerned with buying low and selling high in nanosecond time blocks. The goal is to amass as much money as you can. At the same time, corporations are now concerned primarily with driving up the value of their stock prices at the expense of the employees and their working conditions. This is a vicious cycle indeed, driven by greed, not by integrity.
Thank goodness, we have a great deal of integrity left in Magdalena. People here believe that they can still do and create good things without trampling on the lives and works of others. That’s a priceless commodity, not to be taken lightly. I’m very proud to be part of a community that can grow and sustain itself while other parts of the country are consuming themselves with corruption and greed.

If you have any Comments? Problems? Solutions? Up coming Events? Good Stock Tips? Contact me at mtn_don@yahoo.com or (575) 854-3370.

OPINION: Magdalena - 2,100 Miles From Wall Street