In all my missives, I have been remiss to mention the continued and growing scandals engulfing the mutual fund industry and the methodology of trading stocks on the trading floor at the NYSE. I figure by now if you all aren't distrustful and wary of the money culture in this country, nothing will get you down!

Earlier I stated a hope that Grasso's resignation would mark the climax of the cleaning out of our corrupt financial architecture. Turns out I was both premature and too optimistic (imagine THAT out of me?!?). Anyway, even the most financially inattentive of you have money in mutual funds either through retirement accounts or taxable investments. I STRONGLY urge you to immediately yank ANY money you have in these scandalous funds and put it elsewhere. These scoundrels do not deserve a penny of your money. (I am unfortunately trapped in my 401K to keep money with Morgan Stanley - the restrictions placed on us in these accounts represent another crap monopoly game waiting "to get all shook up."). I really think the tricks these folks in the fund industry have played with our money is just about the biggest disgrace yet - truly the epitome of hypocrisy, even robbing the poor to fatten the rich even more. It is one thing to scam people out of investments in individual stocks where research could have perhaps saved your hide....quite another to get scammed by a fund that claims to represent sound investing practices (like the mantra of "long-term" investing and diversified portfolios of a multitude of stocks) and stand guard over the wealth of thousands, sometimes millions of individuals who put their savings in these funds specifically to get away from having to bother with the day-to-day, month-to-month madness of the markets.

I guess it could not be helped - with all those billions upon billions just sitting around sloshing in front of corrupted watchful eyes, the financial engineers playing with all this wealth had to come up with creative measures to make an extra buck for themselves.

The one saving grace is that there is at least ONE man (or institution) serious about taking up the side of us little folk and cleaning up the money culture no matter the cost to his own personal career or political prospects. I will vote for NY's District Attorney Eliot Spitzer for President in a heartbeat! Keep the vacuum cleaner going, man! :)

As always, be careful out there!

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>October 20, 2003

> PAGE ONE

>TARGETING FUNDS

>For Staid Mutual-Fund Industry,

>Growing Probe Signals Shake-Up

>>Investigators Find Indications Of Widespread Abuses Hurting Small Investors

>By TOM LAURICELLA

>Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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