Location: Blogs Bob O'Brien's Sanity Check Blog
Posted by: bobo 4/24/2006
Is it wrong when a money manager writes the defining piece, elegant in its simplicity, that clearly and simply articulates the problem occurring in the stock market today?
Is it something for the entire NY press corps to be ashamed of, that a avocational journalist nails it, when they seemingly are incapable of doing so?
Arne Alsin again nails it. No preamble or explanation is required. Read it. Don't be a cheapskate if you don't have a subscription. Pay for it. It's worth it.
Really.
I won't reprint much for fair use. But I will give you this:
"The Stock Market Is Patently Unfair
By Arne Alsin
RealMoney.com Contributor
4/25/2006 8:02 AM EDT
URL: thestreet.com
In a fair market, the property of investors is secure and protected, the playing field is level, and rules are uniformly enforced.
Unfortunately for investors, that does not describe the current condition of the stock market. The current stock market is patently unfair.
The core issues are not complex. They are actually quite simple. Investors in stocks should consider these current realities:
A share may or may not be a share.
A vote may or may not be a vote.
A trade may or may not be a trade.
Shares, votes, and trades --- these involve basic, fundamental market functions that should not be at issue. But they are at issue. And a fix is needed. Here are three core principles around which stock market reform should be focused:
Investors Deserve to Know What They Own
It should be a given that brokers fully disclose exactly what sort of asset an investor owns. It's not a given because there is a sizeable roadblock: Full disclosure does not serve the financial interests of brokers.
While it's true that it's your property and you deserve to know what is in your account, don't expect the brokers to be forthcoming anytime soon. If brokers had to disclose to investors when shares are removed from their margin accounts and lent to short sellers, it might put a crimp in their massively profitable stock-lending businesses."
There is more. much, much more.
You should read it.
It should be widely disseminated.
Because it is the truth.
Arne? If you are reading? Bravo. About frigging time. This isn't rocket science. So why is the entire NY financial press machine avoiding the issue that you were able to summarize in, what, 1500 words?
We are proud of you. And they should hang their heads in shame. This is an ugly aspect of the American dream gone wrong. And those who corrupted it deserve to be punished, rather than buying gulfstreams and owning the country.
Send Arne your thoughts.
Send Realmoney your thoughts.
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