Is Efficient Market Hypothesis Valid?

Do markets actually self-correct themselves? Agreed that when the prices don't reflect the best available public and private information , those having the best available information take advantage(basically transacts or trades) of it until that advantage is gone (which is when the same information is available to everyone - efficient market). Should we invest in an efficient market at all? Or better try to get hold of that golden asymmetry? Which is why we depend on financial intermediaries , those brokers , bankers and fund managers, because they have better 'insights'. Don't the technical and fundamental analysis give that extra edge of information?

So, doesn't the information asymmetry drive the financial markets? One argument can be that it is the individual's expectation which drive the financial market - X expects the prices to rise and hence a buy while Y expects the prices to fall and hence sell to X. But don't these contrasting expectations get built by the same asymmetry of information?

Those brokers , bankers and fund managers do have better insights and we are in a way right to delegate our investment decisions to these experts. But this delegation somehow creates a sort of agency problem. They become our agents and obviously have better information than us finally leading the moral dilemma. So the bottom line is - it is the information asymmetry which drives the financial markets and time to time put these same markets into trouble?

Don't the point made by efficient market hypothesis (EMH) that price of any traded asset reflects all known information about the asset , puts us in an illusion that "all is well"? And that regulators are indeed wrong to close their eyes and not interfere in the markets? EMH is in a way contributing to the development of a financial crisis by holding the regulators from raising the red flag.

The Wall Street Casino

Are the banks in U.S still not "too big to fail"? Ask anyone on the Wall Street and none will accept the bubble in making. They keep on showing there is enough of money chasing investment opportunities particularly those risky ones but no money for job creation in this land of opportunities . Groupon's first mover advantage wont last long but still valued in excess of $25 Billion. Very soon their stock certificates out of the impending IPO will be used as wallpaper in the purchaser's drawing room. Its now a decade since S&P has been delivering zero returns. US is bankrupt but rejoicing at the gay legalization.

From manufacturing to finance to speculation - Welcome to the new world order where few make money like bandits and every market crash is followed by latest rounds of head-scratching and pleas for reforms to start it all over again. Finding new ways to legally and directly or indirectly steal money from the public - is that what they are supposed to do in their cushy suits? A silicon valley techie thinks out of the box and transcend the old ways of doing the same things while a Wall Street wizard also thinks out of the box understanding that playing within the old rules of uncertain profits and slowly accruing returns will no more quench their ever carving thirst. And came the move from the stocks , valuations and investments to the psyche , fear of losing out,  herd mentality, salesmanship, flaws within the old rules and greed disrupting ethical standards and exploiting the loopholes. 

A hacker finds flaws in people's security systems to get privileged control while these guys at Wall Street find flaws in public nerve to mint their excesses. In both the cases, the revelations can be embarrassing to those exploited and hence almost gets unreported and untraced even though sharing the exploit would be helpful for various others to avoid the same in the future.

From the great depression to the great recession and still going strong. The casino is on , sanctioned by the government and funded by the poor taxpayers. More like a legalized mafia , very much like Las Vegas.  When will it stop?