Hi DJ, <<Man, we dont know yet, how it looks, when the quiet American gets really p*d - I guess there's floors and floors of underground stockrooms in Hollywood and NY, full of intellectual/media tranquillizers ready for this case...>>
I received this e-mail, and forward same. Now I am off to the game and beers.
QUOTE
In the U.S they have the Wall Street Journal. England has the Financial Times. In Australia, you would read the Australian Financial Review. Australian Financial Review Robin Bromby Friday June 28
Crisis Team: Hit or Myth?
At 2:32 Wednesday, New York time, something extraordinary happened at the corner of Wall and Broad streets.
The New York Stock Exchange’s Dow Jones industrial index – struggling since the opening bell after the World Com fraud revelations - threw off its problems.
From an intraday low of 8926.6, the Dow shot skywards to its high of 9160 at 3:29 PM, leaving a chart movement resembling the north face of the Eiger. Quite some reversal in the face of such bad news for investors.
Could it be the work of the much talked about, but never seen, Plunge-Protection Team?
There is a belief fast gaining ground that this team represents a powerful and secretive hand that is ready to act at any time the Dow looks ready to tank big-time.
It is reputed to consist of Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, the US Treasury Secretary, and select insider Wall Street brokerages, including Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch along with bankers like Citigroup.
When needed, so the theory goes, funds are pumped into stocks and futures to derail any market panic. Such a group’s existence first came to light in The Washington Post five years ago. The paper reported that after the October 1987 crash president Ronald Reagan signed an executive order authorizing a working group on financial markets aimed at coming up with strategies dealing with stock market crises. No one heard much more about it – that is, until January 1997 when Dr. Greenspan made a speech saying the government would directly intervene in the market in “rare circumstances.”
That lead to the Post’s investigation, and the belief that such interventions have occurred has never died.
Lat January popular online brokerage TheStreet.com wrote: ‘That may investors believe a so-called ‘plunge-protection’ team exits may be as important as whether it’s fact or myth. Such beliefs may explain why many investors rode the markets down in the past 22 months., and why most continue to have faith in the stock market, and in Greenspan.”
The New York Post reported in October 2000 that when the Dow dropped 400 points the previous day, Goldman Sachs, Merrill and others saved the market through heavy futures purchases. “You and I will probably never know whether the Fed was behind the futures purchases…and Alan Greenspan will never admit that he is interfering in a supposedly free market,” the paper added.
London’s Observer newspaper last October reported it had information the plunge team was preparing to spend “billions of dollars” to avert a Repeat of 1929 and 1987.
The paper said Washington strategy was to use investment funds and broking subsidiaries to block short selling by speculators.
-END-
Reference: envirotext.eh.doe.gov |
