What is the alternative to Wall Street?
It is very important to make a distinction between the casino economy of Wall Street and the real economy of Main Street. The real economy includes the millions of small- and medium-sized regional businesses that produce and provide useful life-sustaining goods and services. These businesses are rooted in communities and concerned with livelihoods. Local banks and credit institutions — a key part of the real economy — are for the most part healthy because they are subject to state-level regulation and were not engaged in the Wall Street casino binge. The casino economy has been focused on betting on the movement of money and expropriating value out of the real economy. Wall Street has been focused on phantom wealth creation. The Main Street real economy is about creating real wealth, livelihoods, and useful products and services.
