Oil futures were originally created to give heating oil dealers, gas retailers, aviation companies and other businesses a method of hedging against adverse price changes. Instead, they've become just another Wall Street plaything.

The dealers have to buy in, the suppliers, their shareholders, Wall Street. Each of those constituencies need to buy into the brand identity if it is to succeed.

If you think Wall Street firms have it good, you haven't looked closely at Big Oil.

If you think Wall Street has a short memory, you're dead wrong. No, the folks who work on Wall Street, regulate Wall Street - and, above all, invest in its wares, notably its hedge funds - don't have a bad memory. They don't have any memory at all.

I'm not averse to helping Wall Street when it helps Main Street.

Internet companies created the social-media tools that fueled the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street insurgencies, and that have helped political candidates rally grass-roots support.