Dan,
The emails are not a violation of any rules as far as I can tell, but they do tell a story
I don't know if we hear a different story from those emails, or if we hear the same story and regard them differently.
...or so the NY AG says, and he seems to have found [the firm] in a position they cannot defend.
Cannot or will not? I am inclined to believe that, as we previously discussed, a settlement is simply a road to expedient resolution of an ugly situation.
The reports indicate that these emails are from the analysts, the people whose job it is to impartially evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the companies they follow and make recommendations to their clients based on their findings[.]
I'm concentrating more on the word "job" than the word "impartial;" they're inherently contradictory and, at least as I see it, in 95% of cases the former renders the latter insolvent, whether nominally or effectively.
But when the main guy gets all the inputs, and puts it together, and concludes that based on the objective evidence it is crap, then turns around and publishes his opinion, as[...any...company's...]official spokesperson, that it is a solid investment, then that is a willful deception.
I know exactly what you're saying, Dan, but my mind keeps going back to the car salesman who literally has nothing bad to say about a vehicle on his lot, goes so far as to promise performance...and berates not only the vehicle, but the buyers too, the moment they're out of earshot. I don't think that's a crime, nor necessarily indicative of deception, nor do I think it's unethical by default, either.
You certainly know this better than I, but this is after all a regulated industry wherein nobody is permitted to disseminate false or deceptive information about publicly held companies[.]
I'm sure the research reports in question don't contain truly "false" information, or the powers-that-be would have pounced already. As for "deception," there again I come back to intentional persuasiveness as the intrinsic nature of sales and marketing efforts, within which so long as there are no material misrepresentations of facts, can at worst be called dumb or disingenuous.
My opinion, of course.
LP. |
