Very good post from Slider copied here for archive value.
To: wsw1 who wrote (10753) 7/16/2008 11:29:04 AM
From: SliderOnTheBlack 14 Recommendations Read Replies (2) of 10780
re: ["I wonder if the order from SEC to halt naked short-
selling by broker dealers of Fannie and Freddie will have
any real effect..."]
Well, I guess the question of whether it having an effect
has now been answered.
Financials are up, the DOW up 100+, Crude down hard. and
Gold down hard.
FWIW: Yesterday... my cell, blackberry, and email box was
on fire with messages from traders about hedge funds having
credit lines being pulled/called and liquidations being
forced in commodities, and shorts being forced to cover.
There were rumors of this coming for the last few days.
And yesterday, we saw the BAZOOKA whipped out <vbg>.
(...all Bunning wanted to know was: Mr. Paulson, how
much is that Bazooka in your pocket? ... what's the cost
going to be?)
Yes, commodities can be capped - just asked the Hunt
Brothers, and yes, markets can be propped up, and even
turned on a dime.
What we just saw... is the market insiders finally reaching
a consensus that the unbridled, out of control leverage,
and one-way trading was about to collapse the markets.
But, why do you think that the SEC has now changed their tune,
and not made it an immediate "order" and instead, has given
them until Monday?
Because the broker dealers themselves were caught hanging.
...hanging as in "paper hanging" and they couldn't
dust their tracks fast enough.
Once again... the vast, vast majority of "naked shorting"
isn't being done by greaseballs in boiler rooms, it's being
allowed to go on by, being done by, and being profited from,
by the broker dealers themselves.
Why make all these seemingly "non free market" changes?
(not that these markets were really ever free.)
For the same reasons why they instituted Martial Law
in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina...
The inmates had gained control of the prison and were
running wild in the streets.
It really had to be done.
Just as FNM & FRE, and BSC had to be bailed out.
Because the alternative would be much, much worse for
the average American, and the markets... than the bailouts.
And that's the bitch...
Because the root of the problem is why did we ever allow
them to get so levered, and so under-capitalized in the
first place?
The banker-cabal got "us" right where they wanted us...
They profiteered all the way up via massive, and
unprecedented leverage...and they put the markets,
the economy, and the American public between them,
and the de-leveraging on the way down.
Sure, morally the bailouts are anti-free markets.
But, the price of morality is one that neither you, I,
the markets, or the American public can now pay.
...and that's the way Wall Street engineered it all along.
It's not Bernie Ebbers, and Ken Skilling that need to
be rotting away in prison... it's Alan Greenspan,
and the CEO's of Merrill, Bear Stearns, Citi, and
the regulators at OFHEO, and the oversight committees
in Congress, and the Senate.
How in the hell can Bernie Ebbers be in prison for life,
when Alan Greenspan did 10,000,000,000,000 x more damage?
Bottomline: We got bent over and F'd.
It wasn't the first time, and won't be the last.
It's been happening over, and over, and over again
in America for over a hundred years.
The cure?
Abolish the Fed.
Abolish the IRS.
Elimination of fiat paper.
Going back to a gold backed dollar.
Balanced budgets, and fair trade agreements.
Holding politicians and central bankers responsible.
Never allowing the degree of leverage that we now have
in our financial system... regulate banks like banks,
and don't let them become glorified 80:1 levered hedge
funds.
Bunning had his day yesterday.... let's see if Ron Paul
can "close" the deal today.
...sadly, I doubt it.
He'll throw his monologue jabs, but won't close, or corner
Bernanke.
And in another 20 years... we'll be doing this
all over again.
Many of us will profit from it, but sadly there will be
one helluva lot of Ma & Pa Kettles, and Aunt Millies who
won't... and their life savings will be gone, their jobs
will be eliminated, and they won't be able to afford heat
this winter because some asshole from a trading desk of
an "Amaranth", or an "Enron Energy desk" will have
manipulated and levered their way to a hundred million
dollar windfall.
When we start putting ALL these bastards in jail,
including politicians, and central bankers, not
just the Ebbers, and Skillings... then, and only then,
will this shit stop.
SOTB |
