Overstock.com, Naked Short Selling, and the All-Important Pre-Borrow
Honored Client,
As you may know, for four years Overstock.com has been at the forefront of the battle to expose and stop a Wall Street practice called "naked short selling", a crime we think has been used to loot countless billions from the savings of Americans. For a long time, Wall Street firms said that the crime of "naked short selling" was a myth. Then, last summer, as our financial system began imploding, they began demanding emergency federal protection from the same crime whose existence they had been denying. Our job of convincing Washington that there was a problem became a lot easier when Bernie Madoff turned out to be linked to one of the main loopholes we have been arguing should be closed.
This is a complicated issue, however. A clear explanation appeared last fall in this five minute Bloomberg News story that hits the nail on the head: the problem will only be resolved by a mandatory "pre-borrow" requirement, a protection Wall Street banks demanded for themselves once they started to come under attack (but which they and the hedge funds are fighting against being enacted to protect Main Street companies across America).
As I have written before, corny as it may sound, we at Overstock.com really do see ourselves as looking out for the more than 10 million Americans who have become our customers. Thus, I send these occasional updates hoping it helps you make sense of the noise in the headlines. If it is of no interest, please just enjoy this 5% discount coupon* with my compliments and sincere best wishes.
Most Respectfully,
Patrick M. Byrne
CEO, Overstock.com
The above message from PB was in today's Overstock.com mass mailing |
