Reading Post #4

The second part of the book discusses mainly about the author's distaste for Wall Street and why it should be eliminated. From his somewhat dramatic tones and metaphors, it's obvious that Korten loathes the Wall Street Economy and wants it gone ASAP. He would go so far as to compare it to a cancer that needs immediate treatment.

The author suggests that Wall Street Economy should be replaced by Main Street Economy. A Main Street economy is defined as being composed of people "producing real goods and services to provide livelihoods for themselves". This idea may sound superb as Korten has described, but so did Wall Street as a concept/model. Wall Street is supposed to help businesses grow as they sell shares in exchange for profits. However, it surely has to take the blame for the 2008 recession--because of its corruption and lack of regulation. What goes wrong is often the greedy people at play. Similarly, it is hard to say that the Main Street plan will go as smoothly as Korten pictures, and people continue to care solely about self-sustaining. What should be done isn't to simply eliminate the existing model and replace with new one, but to improve and regulate the current model. After all, Wall Street does have its benefits. Many firms' growth would be limited without the current system and the funds generated from it. It would be unfair to say that Wall Street only benefits small group of riches and has absolutely no contribution to local communities.