As far as I can tell, the New York Stock Exchange specialists are:

capitalizing on opportunity in such an American way that it makes me want to break out in song.

human beings who understandably took advantage of the system and were probably encouraged to do so by their firms.

scumbags who will likely get a light slap on the wrist and retire extremely wealthy.

to blame for ripping off investors. But if I were the specialist doing these trades, I don't think I'd lose any sleep over it (as long as I didn't get caught).

Some insurance companies that offer retirement plans promise to waive certain administrative fees in proposals to prospective clients. But instead, once a plan is up and running, the fees are actually siphoned from investors' accounts, reducing their returns. You find this practice is:

acceptable, as long as the investors can't tell they're getting ripped off.

unstoppable. It's been going on for years. Why kid ourselves that it will ever cease?

reprehensible. The companies who engage in this practice should be heavily fined and publicly flogged for taking advantage of individual investors.

a fascinating lesson in profit taking. Insurance companies are like money-printing machines, and I can't help but marvel at the multitudinous ways in which they are able to enrich themselves.

The son of a billionaire oil tycoon recently pleaded guilty to committing securities fraud in a pump-and-dump stock scheme. To inflate the price of a stock, he purposely sent thousands of "hoax faxes" that led recipients to believe it would triple in value. Your take is that:

anyone idiotic enough to believe he received a misdirected fax from a stock broker deserves to lose money if he acts on the tip.

there's nothing inherently wrong with hyping a stock and profiting from the capital appreciation that results. Market participants should know that the stock market carries risk.

the scoundrels who engage in these schemes should be tortured and forced to give all their ill-gotten gains to charity.

it's unusual for anyone to publicly admit that they are wrong, as the offender has done in this case. But his biggest mistake was sending a hoax fax to the SEC's office.

The mutual fund industry, which once upon a time enjoyed a pristine reputation, got into trouble again. Some 27 fund firms allegedly accepted kickbacks totaling hundreds of millions of dollars from a third-party administrator. In these secret deals, the administrator would skim money from investor accounts and then rebate a portion of the proceeds to the fund advisers. The advisers in turn would push for the administrator's contract to be renewed. In your opinion:

this latest scandal really only amounts to a few basis points of return for individual investors and is hardly worth all the fuss that people are making.

one hand washes the other. Don't suppliers normally give generous gifts to the companies they do business with to ensure that they will keep their business?

this is completely unethical. Such arrangements should be disclosed to individual investors. No wonder Americans don't have a lot of money in their 401(k) accounts. They're being robbed!

the fund companies have soiled themselves yet again. You would think they would be potty trained now to at least hide these kickbacks a little bit better.