Windy City Writers

By Walt McElligott 

 (*Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors of The Losing Game, T.E. Scott and Stephen Edds, and do not necessarily represent those of the article's author, Walt McEligott, or of the Chicago Writers Association.)

Co-authors Stephen Edds and T.E. Scott don't hold back their cards when it comes to their feelings about Wall Street. Their new book, The Losing Game: Why You Can't Beat Wall Street (Hidden Truth Publishing), is a stinging indictment of the American financial industry.

In the book, the authors pose questions such as, "Would you gamble your retirement on a game that's rigged?" Then they provide their own answers. "You are now. For decades, the American people have been held captive in their financial lives by the limited knowledge of and an inherent trust in Wall Street, only to see that trust violated time and time again by greed and corruption." 

Or they ask leading questions such as, "Why are you trusting your 401(k) and pension to a corrupt and unregulated market? Would you take your retirement money to Las Vegas to gamble?" 

Edds, a freelance writer from Indianapolis, shares the story behind the book in this interview for the Chicago Writers Association. As in the book, he pulls no punches when it comes to Wall Street, which he charges is "fleecing" Americans out of their hard-earned money.

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CWA: The Losing Game describes "Wall Street as the largest gambling casino in the United States, where the games are fixed and the house ALWAYS wins." What experience do you or your co-author have that qualifies you to write a book like this?

 

Edds: I have a BA degree from Hanover College and also worked for 15 years in the field of corporate marketing communications. Like many people, I had a very limited knowledge of Wall Street until I met T.E. Scott. Through months of research and conversation, I realized T.E. had seen through the illusion and deception of Wall Street and I joined his mission to help spread the word.

As for T.E. Scott’s qualifications, he is a retired entrepreneur and business owner who not only worked as a union laborer for United Airline for 32 years, but then built his small business into a multi-million dollar company before he retired.

Together, we apply well-reasoned arguments, unwavering logic, and common-sense insights to expose the stock market and commodity markets for what they are: brilliantly marketed con games designed to separate working families from their money without accountability or prosecution.

CWA: Am I correct that you are describing a type of psychological warfare happening on Wall Street?

Edds: Exactly. In the book, we talk about how over the years, Wall Street has implemented a form of psychological war, using propaganda, marketing and the complexity of the market itself, to keep us in the dark about their true intent.

In The Losing Game: Why You Can't Beat Wall Street we are able to show the bottom-line basics of how Wall Street is fleecing millions of Americans every day with Congress and the media as willing accomplices. Scott presents a revolutionary perspective that uncovers the deceptive conditioning of the American worker to place their trust and money in Wall Street without question.

For example, how many times have you read about how “now is the best time to invest with the market down”? It’s marketing and sales, pure and simple, disguised as news.

CWA: Simple people, like me, have been led to believe that the only way to solve our "financial crisis" is to dump a trillion of our hard earned dollars into Wall Street. Does The Losing Game help us understand what is really happening?

Edds: The Losing Game exposes Wall Street's motivations and speaks to the involvement of the media, academic world and Congress to lay out clearly why we're in this mess to begin with. It didn't start in 2008, 1987, or 1929, and it's not going to change anytime soon!

This is the book you MUST read before even thinking about investing in Wall Street! Average people believe they’re making a safe investment, when in fact, they are gambling in a casino where all the games are rigged!

CWA: Is your book for the everyday blue- and white- collar worker?

Edds: Yes, we wrote the book especially for those people who don’t like reading investment books. We use simple terminology to walk the reader through the process of what REALLY happens when you pay into your 401 (k) or retirement plan. It’s amazing that millions of people who would never buy a lottery ticket or step into a casino hand their money to Wall Street, which is just as much of a gamble as a slot machine. We believe it will help anyone break through the myths and demand accountability from Wall Street. Readers need our book to help them understand that they are trusting their 401(k) accounts and pensions to a corrupt and unregulated stock market.

CWA: What is the difference, if any, between "gambling your hard earned paycheck" at one of Harrah's casinos and the stock market?

Edds: You’ll have better odds at Harrah’s and the games are honest. Gambling boats and casinos are promoted as pure entertainment, with no reason to promote themselves as something other than what they are. The markets, however, are promoted as performing an important business function with a vital economic value.

In a casino, you are playing games marketed as a fun activity. No value attaches to the games themselves. The gambler knows he is gambling, and the name of the game is insignificant. A poker game is a poker game. Roulette, craps, blackjack are just games. They have no vital economic importance to society.

Las Vegas never denies that the casinos are primarily gambling facilities. You know upfront that even with the best restaurants, star-studded shows, and luxurious amenities, available to enhance the gambling environment and to bring your money into the specific casino, you are still gambling. You may enjoy these activities, but try as you might, you can’t hide the fact that you are at a casino to gamble.

To camouflage the market’s reality (that it’s a huge gambling casino) Wall Street managers needed to convince the public that people were actually investing to enhance their savings and promote the economy of the United States. This is a formidable task. Wall Street had to circumvent all of the entertainment and amenities that casinos offer and change your mindset to get you to believe that the stock and commodity markets are a business function vital to everyone’s well being.

CWA: In other words, I freely gave my money over to a huge gambling casino when I invested in my companies 401(k)?

Edds: You did so because you (and thousands like you) trusted that you’re investing your money. You’ve been convinced that the "games" are actually a legitimate financial venture. To get you to believe you’re investing, the exchanges had to attach something of value to the names of the games. They took symbols that we believed were vital to our economy and used them as titles on their games (stock names, commodities, etc.), which allowed them to seduce the public into thinking they were investing in something of substance. In reality, they’d merely changed the title of the games, but it’s still the same gambling games that you find in Las Vegas.

CWA: I note that your book makes several provocative claims, one of which is that the stock and commodity markets are "minus-sum" propositions for investors. Please explain.

Edds: "Minus-sum" is one of the primary factors that make Wall Street a "losing game" for investors. The Losing Game describes this concept in great detail, but briefly, minus-sum refers to all of the "hidden costs" that make it impossible to get ahead in the stock market. These costs include brokers’ fees and commissions as well as the taxes the IRS collects whether you win or lose.

CWA: What is the most important thing to keep in mind in playing the Wall Street "game"?

Edds: Two things. One, the main element of all the games is that players or investors are trying to predict an unpredictable, and the odds are stacked in favor of the house. Two, the odds are that you are going to lose money in the market.

CWA: What is the difference between gambling at a casino and gambling in the stock market?

Edds: A major difference between gambling at a casino and gambling in the markets is that the markets present advantages to an elite few that the average investor doesn’t have. In a casino, you may be treated as a high roller, with VIP treatment and access to parts of the casino that average people will never see. But at the end of the day, the games you choose to play for a high buy-in are the same games average people are playing on the main floor.

On Wall Street, an elite few have access to inside information, a seat on the exchange, the ability to act on information instantly as opposed to when it hits the public, and access to information that the public doesn’t receive. Some of this is legal, some not. All of these advantages result in an increase in the odds in favor of a select few, to the detriment of average investors.

CWA: Please explain the similarity you draw between Las Vegas and the New York Stock Exchange.

Edds: At a casino, there is a strong natural tendency for an investor to ignore losses and focus on winnings. Casinos encourage this tendency by making sure that every quarter won in a slot machine causes lights to flash and makes its own little jingle in the metal tray. Seeing all the lights and hearing all the clinking, it’s not hard to get the impression that everyone’s winning.

If you watch the floor of the NYSE, with all of the yelling and running around and the flashing lights and the stock ticker, one cannot help but be caught up in the excitement, thinking that fortunes are being made on the floor. But losses are mostly silent.

CWA: The great illustrations for your book were drawn by John Marr. Is he available for hire as an artist to other writers?

Edds: Certainly. The funny thing is that John is a friend of T.E. Scott and initially a skeptic of the concepts Scott was developing for the book. Not only did Scott change John's mind, but he contributed some fantastic and funny illustrations. If any Chicago Writers Association members are in need of John's talents, I'd suggest that they e-mail me at: <Stephen (at) stephenedds.com> for his contact information.

CWA: What are your current writing plans?

Edds: Right now, I’m completely focused on promoting The Losing Game. Publishing the book is only step one – our primary objective is to create a grassroots movement that gets people to stop investing in the stock market – and start investing in themselves. As a nation, we’re drowning in debt, the bailouts will NOT work. If we can’t make changes at the grassroots level, we’ll be forced to enact Federal legislation that takes control of the currently unregulated financial markets. If everyone just stops giving their money to Wall Street and invest in themselves and their communities, this won’t be necessary.

My writing is focused on the losinggame.com blog

CWA: Many thanks Stephen, for taking time out of your busy schedule to share your thoughts with the Chicago Writers Association. Best wishes to you and Mr. Scott on the success of The Losing Game.