How did we get into this mess? There are several reasons and several discussions that will take place over the coming months.
But as my friend Wayne Jett points out: Collapses occurring in U.S. financial markets have causes involving perpetrators and enablers. The causes are not simply flaws in capitalism or bad business judgment. These collapses would not have happened without crucial roles played by institutions of federal government, roles that enabled private parties to profit enormously by perpetrating frauds against the investing public. (Emphasis is mine.)
He goes on to name the enablers, what he dubs the Four Horsemen of the Economic Apocalypse, by stating, Four entitites brought on this destruction. They are (1) the Federal Reserve System; (2) the Securities and Exchange Commission; (3) the Commodities Futures Trading Commission; and (4) the U.S. Treasury. Mr. Jett was sounding the alarm long before the fall. Heres Waynes piece: ssg-9-22-08-stop-paulson-four-horsemen-of-economic-apocalypse
Jett identifies the Four Horsemen of Economic Apocalypse: Fed, SEC, CFTC, Paulson.
Now that were here, we cant just move forward without also looking back. We need to investigate. Research. Hold people accountable. Correct mistakes. I love the editorials at the Wall Street Journal. And though Im just little old small businesswoman me, I know that there is more than meets the eye on how we got to where sit today. I know theres more than what theyre editorializing in the left hand column of my WSJ.
And heres a must read investigative piece that raises many questions in need of answers. From Mark Mitchell:
Take the case of Washington Mutual, which met its demise on the same day that the Journal published its editorial. While the SEC has not yet released data covering the last couple weeks of turmoil, the data through June show that at one point that month “failures to deliver” of Washington Mutual’s stock reached an astounding 9 million shares. From June 5 to June 19 there were, on any given day, at least 1 million WaMu shares that had “failed to deliver.”
In other words, hedge funds and brokers sold as many as 9 million shares that they did not possess (which is why they “failed to deliver” them), and they kept the market saturated with at least 1 million phantom shares for more than two weeks. WaMu’s stock price dropped by more than 30% during this period. Similar attacks, with similar effects, occurred one after another in the months leading up to June.
That is very good evidence of illegal market manipulation.
Aside from Washington Mutual, Bank of America, Fannie Mae, MBIA, Ambac, and close to 50 smaller financial firms – not to mention a couple hundred non-financial companies – have appeared on the SEC-mandated “threshold” list of companies whose stock has “failed to deliver” in excessive quantities.
That, too, is very good evidence of illegal market manipulation.
A number of the big banks never appeared on the SEC’s “threshold” list. Perhaps that explains the Journal’s claim that there is “no evidence” that naked short selling contributed to our financial crisis. If so, the Journal does not understand the methods that naked short sellers use to manipulate the markets. The Journal also does not understand how powerful financial elites manipulate the government (and the media).
