Speculation is no different from investment, except in the fevered imagination of moralists.
^^^^^^^ CB: However, since the early 1900's finance capital has formed an oligarchy or ruling sector of the capitalist class in the imperialist countries ( See _Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism_ by Vladimir Lenin; Chapt. III. FINANCE CAPITAL AND THE FINANCIAL OLIGARCHY http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/ch03.htm). So, it is a scientific , not moralistic, observation to differentiate the finance capital sector from the other sectors in analyzing the capitalist system and its ruling class today.
Recent empirical evidence of the oligarchical nature of the finance sector today, still, came from the different treatment of the Wall Street companies and the automobile companies in the recent bailouts.
March on Wallstreet !