I see what you're saying about him and Rand both saying people should get paid for honest work. I reject Hartmann's premises though. Speculators ARE doing work by providing liquidity to markets, the same liquidity that people use to buy homes or to get funding for a business idea.

I also think he's wrong that this is the super-rich doing this. I have known of peope with networths over $100M who believe in investing only in real estate nearby, businesses they're involved in, and simple stocks and mutual fund--- they've never taken a speculative position. OTOH I've known several people with networths less than $200k who always have a complex speculative positions, with futures and/or options spreads.

I strongly reject what Hartmann is saying here. It's trying to say "your financial problems are caused by some other meanies down the road from you." I reject that. Usually people's financial problems are not even partly caused by "the super-rich", "the Federal Reserve", President Obama, Gov Walker. People have far more influence over their own lives than institutions/politicians do.