Right on, it hurts us all Edgy. The SEC has been forced to investigate it a number of times and always found it prevalent. Their reaction was pittiful. Kind of like 'please stop, wink wink' . It leaves a trail a mile long and MUST be supported by an unscrupulous brokerage. It smacks of corruption and cooperation of business and government.
It is just another example of people just siting back and doing nothing as the criminal element continues its theft on a thousand fronts. Appathy on the part of investors and voters is a big contributing factor. We investors are suposed to be the owners of companies gone public. Most companies just treat us as kids that should just shut up and take what we get. What we get in Enron, GM, Fanie.......
Voters are just fired up by the canine, equestrian shows every two years, but refuse to elect honest people. They just believe what they hear on TV and don't question a thing. The average Joe has no sense of responsibiility, just the sense of being a helpless victim. As a group, we are not helpless, just lazy.
The truth is uncomfortable to a lot of people. Anyone trying to expose the truth is often vilified or denegrated with lables such as "conspriacy nut" or what ever lable they can use to get make people comfortable ignoring the uncomfortable.