The stock market isn't a bank. The only person who failed to safeguard your money was you.
No actually these trusted organizations have failed us.
Its public knowledge.
Did your broker tell you to buy stock in a pinkie scam?
There are certain expectations we have from the people that are involved in handling our money even if its indirectly.
They are to ensure that our Certificates are legitimate, just like you expect the bank to give you authentic money.
Just like you expect the bank to keep your money safe, should they declare bankrupcy you know your money is safe up to
$100,000 and if someone takes money out of your bank its a security issue and they will have to deal with this.
Money laundering is considered fraud yet people have managed to transfer Millions of dollars without raising red flags.
SEC is responsible for tracing our stocks, yet sure it was not intentional but it happened they had no clue how many shares were being transferred daily or so they claim, the MM's didn't realize they were making such huge profits, and they admit to all this in the open. They also were under the impression that there were 300 stock holders, again no security measures at all. On the other hand I do believe that they are currently trying to make things right, its seems like they are finally taking action.
E-trade is currently paying $1,000,000 for not keeping track of who has opened accounts and it seems like some unlawful individuals were caught by the SEC. They are getting off easy considering how serrious this is to national security.
Combine all this and you have a problem with National Security.
I'm surprised that the Bush administration is not taking this more serriously considering that the Washington Post had an ad on the front page addressing this issue.