Well, I am one of the complainers. I have tried to understand why someone who is running a company will sell so much stock as we are rolling along 13 years into research and the like, at a level of stock sales supporting a life style unimaginable to me, and I end up wondering if he has faith in his own company.
I know it's insurance against the failure of the company, and it is, no doubt, the smart thing to do. It's the standard for the industry, I know.
But I also know why it is there are conservatives like me thinking that Wall street is out of control.
I am a political conservative, that believes in capitalism, but by that I mean HONEST capitalism. Wall Street has left honest capitalism behind, for some time. Honesty in the United States is the reason so much of the rest of the world will park their money here.
Michael Lewis describes the naivete of the Germans, buying our sub prime bonds, because of their foundation of trust of dealing with Wall Street business men from the 1970's.
Trust earned through time can be lost in a moment. We are only lucky that the rest of the world is as crooked, or we would have even more money parked elsewhere.
I play golf with a financial guy that retired at 47 who scoffs at my conspiracy theories about crooked Wall Street, giving money to both sides of the aisle to protect their system. If there was another game in town that I considered honest, i would take my retirement there.