I think with 2 crashes now in less than a decade we are going to lose a generation of investors. I can't really blame them. This Wild West "almost anything goes" environment has been a lot like our greater economy the past 10 years - the benefits accrue to just a few and the masses miss out during great transfers of wealth. Each IPO is literally a transfer of wealth to a few insiders from the masses - which generally people are ok with as long as the investors can make a buck - but it is quite egregious. As is buying back shares with the company's money, while spitting out new shares concurrently to the executives. To whit of the culture, see Lehman Brothers memo - when people asked if executives should forego bonuses - it was laughed at (literally).

• Days from becoming the largest bankruptcy in US history, Lehman Brothers steered millions to departing executives even while pleading for a federal rescue, US Congress has been told.
• Waxman quoted Fuld as saying in one document, "Don't worry'' to the suggestion that executives go without bonuses. That suggestion came from Lehman's money management subsidiary, Neuberger Berman. Waxman quoted George H Walker, President Bush's cousin and a Lehman executive who oversaw some Neuberger Berman employees, as responding with a dismissive tone to the idea of going without bonuses. Sorry team,'' he wrote to the executive committee, according to Waxman. "I'm not sure what's in the water at 605 Third Avenue today.... I'm embarrassed and I apologise.''

When a Goldman Sachs (GS) can position its traders to short say (ahem) solar stocks, and then its analyst downgrades the sector and stocks across the board lose 20% in a day, well that's shooting fish in a barrel. Not that this would ever happen with the "Chinese Wall" between the analysts and the traders. Nah. Never. When put buying spikes ahead of bad news (no leaks there) and the SEC never looks into it; or vice versa ahead of a buyout. Naked shorting not enforced for years, until the top investment bank is targeted after benefiting from it along with their customers for years. This stuff has been going on since I've been in the market but it has accelerated the past 6-7-8 years. It is one thing knowing the house is going to win 55% of the time (one can live with that), but this past decade as certain huge players dominate more and more of the scene and apparently the information flow/advantages are so skewed - while creating excesses that topple the market every 5 years - is really going to make "the game" not worth it for the masses. If you did the Vanguard "low cost" index fund you have a big "L" on your forehead the past decade. And throw in a real estate mania in between the 2 market run ups/crashes and you just have a prescription for lost savings by the masses.

In March I posted a piece from the Wall Street Journal called the Lost Decade (Mar 26 - WSJ: Stocks Tarnished by Lost Decade) Essentially through that point stocks had returned 0% since 2000. I wrote

For the great many who live normal lives and investing is simply something they do through most large cap mutual funds (many of which are simply S&P 500 clones disguised to rake in large fees) in their regular accounts or 401ks, it's been a tough decade. And that's not adjusted for inflation in which real returns are clearly negative.