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WALL STREET PROTESTERS TAKING AIM AT U.S. WEALTH AND JOB CREATORS
Charlie Gasparino: We should point out that these protesters aren't just protesting for higher taxes. If you listen to their barely discernable rhetoric, if you can stand the smell of them, it's essentially socialist, Marxist ideologies. They are calling for the end of the system, not to help repair the system. I have about a dozen sources who used to work for big investment firms who worked in either California or New York and moved to Texas. Why? Taxes. That's all they'll tell you.
Adam Lashinsky: I'll state the obvious. If more of these people had jobs they wouldn't have time to be protesting on Wall Street or in front of the homes of the CEO's of investment firms. There are probably some revolutionaries involved. If you look at history, it was the revolutionaries that started the protests against the Vietnam War. It wasn't until the middle class college kids got involved that it started to have big numbers and people started to pay attention.
Amilya Antonneti: First of all, they are obviously in the wrong place. They need to be in Washington, not where they currently are. They have seriously crossed a very clear line in the sand. By going up to the CEO's home, I have never heard such push back from my fellow CEO's until we saw that. Now, we're like you know what? Game on. It's the unwritten rule. If you want to have an issue with me at my business, or at Wall Street or Washington, that's fine. If you endanger my children?
Matt McCall: If you think about this in simple math terms, if taxes remain high-New York is the highest in the country, one of the highest in the world compared to other countries-what is a company trying to do? If it's a bank or any other large corporation. They are trying to make their bottom line as high as it can possibly be. So, the higher taxes being that factor that is going to lower the bottom line, if I can somehow change that as a CEO of a company, I am going to go to a state where I can increase my profits and increase the share price, which is what we try to do. So, in the end what these protesters, who want to get jobs for the middle class, are doing is hurting the 99 percent the most because if Paulson moves his company there is a large portion of clerical workers and administrators in that company that will be hurt a lot more than that one percent. So, they're actually hurting the 99 percent.
GM'S NEW CHEVY SPARK HITTING THE ROAD IN 2013
Charlie Gasparino: Despite all the brainwashing of the Obama administration on the green agenda, the mainstream media, corporate America, you can't sell these dopy green cars. The American people think that this stuff is nonsense.
Adam Lashinsky: I'm enjoying this conversation among all of us auto experts. We know what cars Americans want to drive. It is a tough economy right now so let's see what happens when the economy does a little better.
Amilya Antonetti: They are trying to push this crazy green agenda and they are not listening one thing that any American is saying. One, we're twice the size to be able to fit in that. It's smaller than a Volt. It doesn't do backup and you still can only go 35 miles. So, people are moving away from the city in order to be able to lower their cost of living. They're commuting in and now this thing goes to a shorter distance. Are you listening to what's happening?
Matt McCall: If you think about the Volt, they sold less than 4,000. Throw in a Nissan Leaf, which is basically the same thing, here in the United States they sold 11,000 in nine months. Last month, 5,500 suburbans were sold. So, what is America telling you? We want big cars. We want the gas guzzlers.
FORMER HEDGE FUND BOSS RAJARATNAM GETS 11 YEARS BEHIND BARS. WALL STREET PROTESTS CONTINUE AMID INSIDER TRADING CRACKDOWNS
Charlie Gasparino: If there is a barely discernable truth to what they said it is that Wall Street is kind of a sleazy place and people do sleazy things and violate the law. The interesting thing is that they don't understand that there has been a massive crackdown on Wall Street going on for many years now and Raj is just the latest victim and Steve Cohen is in the cross fires. I'm not saying he did anything wrong, but clearly the government is going after one of the biggest hedge fund investors out there.
Adam Lashinsky: The point is, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the Wall Street protests, the prosecutors have been trying to clamp down on the people who cheat on Wall Street for years and this guy got the book thrown at him. There is nobody who should be upset about that other than his family.
Amilya Antonetti: As a small business owner, we continue to say, if you have the right connections, if you have the financial backing, which is really not your
money it's everyone else's money, you get off of things. The rules are not the same for you guys as it does for us. And that is not the American way.
Matt McCall: 11 years is the biggest sentence that has been passed down in insider trading. Not to stick up for Wall Street, but insider trading is very tough to prove in a court because you're always passing information around. The big difference in this case is that they wire-tapped him and that's big and that's where the appeals are really going on.
RALLY STOCKS
Adam Lashinsky: Netflix (NFLX)
Matt McCall: Applied Materials (AMAT)
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