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NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press

Location: Blogs Bob O'Brien's Sanity Check Blog    
Posted by:   bobo 7/27/2006 6:13 AM

UPDATE: Read this chilling article on hedge funds, and then consider the NY spin represented below. Is anyone surprised at the level of message control in the US media? Why?

-----------------------

The NY Sun (who?!?) issued forth a typical defense of hedge funds, the likes of which are so popular with the NY press corps.

You can read it here.

What's wrong with it?

Well, for starters, consider the assumption in this statement:

"On the House side, a Democrat, Rep. Barney Frank, who had initially introduced a bill handing hedge funds to the SEC on a silver platter, now may be willing to forgo that approach in favor of handing some oversight to the Federal Reserve, a tack supported by Rep. Richard Baker, chairman of the capital markets subcommittee. To the extent hedge funds warrant any additional regulation, it's because they can sometimes pose a systemic risk, particularly if they're highly leveraged. The Fed, with a track record monitoring that kind of risk and with the trust of the markets, is better suited to keep an eye on that than is the SEC."

What additional regulation is he thinking of, when there is NO regulation for hedge funds? Additional would mean more, in my mind. There is none now. So "any" might be considered more, I suppose. Still, the assumption is that there is some now, which is false. These are anonymous pools of unregulated money, with no more regulation than you or I - and yet they account for half the trading on the exchanges.

Now, don't get me started on the Federal Reserve becoming responsible for hedge funds. That there is no such authority in the charter of the Fed should be one clue they are the wrong entity for this. That they lack any prosecution capability would be another. That they lack even the SEC's civil suit flexibility should be yet another. I have no doubt that the Federal Reserve, whose banking system is privately owned (the Federal Reserve system is no more Federal than Federal Express - the banks are privately-owned companies whose member banks own them, and are paid a dividend for that ownership) and which only has a politically-appointed governance/review board, has exactly no expertise in regulating hedge funds, nor anything else that I can tell.

How did this run so far off the tracks?

People, we are talking about "stock pools", run by "operators" - exactly the sort of stock pools that were operating in the 1920s. Replace stock pool with "hedge fund", and operator with "manager", and it is the same thing. Exactly the same thing. Nothing different. Guys like Kennedy made their fortune operating stock pools back then. Guys like Cohen are making vast fortunes operating pools now. Same thing.

The Pecora hearings revealed how pools were a manipulative scourge in the 1920s, and how some of the most venerated names on Wall Street were as crooked as can be imagined. National City Bank - now Citigroup - was responsible for the most egregious and largest fraud in US banking history, at that time, and insiders screwed investors out of fortunes. Insiders with names like Rockefeller.

Pools were engaging in every manipulative dirty trick ever conceived. It's all part of the hearings. Outrage over those revelations is what drove the creation of the SEC.

And yet now, as then, Wall Street is claiming that no regulation is the best course.

Did you know that in 1933 and 1934, Wall  Street lobbied extensively to ban any regulation? That the argument was identical? That any regulation would crimp liquidity, and the efficient workings of a "perfect system"?

Incidentally, liquidity is often used as the end all reason that short selling and hedge funds are so valuable and good - and yet liquidity is really good primarily for Wall Street. Having huge amounts of bogus stock created by options MMs and short sellers, creates liquidity - but who benefits from that liquidity other than Wall Street - specifically, the brokers for whom more liquidity translates into more trades, thus more money?Answer? Nobody. Liquidity is good for those who control the market. Period. I personally could do with less liquidity, and more fairness, in the market. Less liquidity with less fraud and larceny sounds good in my book. But not in Wall Street's, or the SEC's, or the NY press corp's, apparently...

Isn't it obvious from the FFH suit, that the same sort of underhanded, larcenous tricks are being used? What part of this is confusing? If you allow the largest movers in the market complete anonymity, and provide them a system wherein they are treated differently then you or I, they will abuse the market for their own gain. That is the lesson from the 1920s and 1930s, and it is the lesson now. Anyone doubting that lesson should consider the S&L scandal, where DEREGULATION of the thrift industry provided an opportunity for crooks to rob the industry blind - and ultimately rob American taxpayers blind - all aided by the Administration, and by Wall Street.

Is everyone in NY and Washington so dense or so co-opted that they forget these lessons so easily? Is the Beltway so owned by Wall Street that our government is going to facilitate the wholesale robbery of American retirement accounts via the market?

How do you think that hedge funds have made SO MUCH MONEY over the last 4 years? How have the largest Wall Street firms made RECORD PROFITS year after year, when the market is flat to down, and commissions have never been lower?

Hello?

Is anyone in there?

Read the FFH suit, and marvel at a manipulation that is drawn from the lawless pages of the Roaring Twenties. And then ask yourself how our lawmakers, regulators, and watchdog media are managing to miss this.
Copyright ©2006 Bob O'Brien
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Comments (42)
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By rtway1 on 7/27/2006 11:39 AM
I hate to admit it and probably most who read this will think I am un-American but the truth of the matter is that the average American and that takes in our elected officials are as smart as a tree stump when it comes to their financial future, well being, understanding of any kind of financial market, monetary issues, inflation, taxation,etc. and etc. The system wants the populace to stay dumb so that they provide the catalyst (money) so that the system can leverage that money(savings bonds, cd,s and other interest bearing vehicles,that will be eaten alive by inflation) into investments that they have rigged so as to guarantee their illicit profits and doing so by using the money from the rubes. No where in your formal public education is there a whisper of investing or understanding how the system works or even the devastating effects of inflation. They want Americans dumb and the population is more than happy to make sure that it happens. Not until the rubes go to the bank and find the money not there will there be a public outcry and Wall St. and the elite financial community know it. Grease the pols and the press and the machine keeps on rolling until another S&L debacle comes along. The public will never see it coming unless they print it in the sports section or in the cartoons. Hopefully these lawsuits will open the doors of reality and people will see their shit is missing.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By long_ostk on 7/27/2006 11:40 AM
Bobo, not sure if you had seen where I asked this question before. If you did and decided against it, no problem. I was wondering if you might post a link on the main page of this blog to the SEC comment section for the ammendments to Reg SHO? I encourage everyone who visits this blog to please tell the SEC how you feel about the grandfathered shares that they stole from us. TIA.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By olfeller on 7/27/2006 5:22 PM
Education is the only answer. Or maybe we can hope for a hundredth-monkey type of enlightenment. The internet sure has changed my outlook on many things in the last 10 years. I see local leaders of industry and politics where I live involved in a lot of "grey areas" ethically and legally that I was never aware of before. People better wise up fast, it`s our only hope to retain any semblance of a society fit to live in.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By mwillwilly2003 on 7/27/2006 5:28 PM
This piece is a brilliant reply to the disgusting NY Sun gibberish, and deserving of a much wider public exposure. If you haven't done so already, may I suggest that you fire of a copy of this to the NY Sun as a letter to the editor? They may very well just deep six it, but there can be no harm in trying, and maybe, just maybe, someone there will reconsider their present course. (I would also suggest sending it to other venues as well.) thanks again for all you do.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By bobo on 7/27/2006 5:44 PM
Clem: Well, given that neither you nor I have any idea what their earnings will be tomorrow, I'll go with many, many millions of shares have been sold that don't exist. The prime brokers and the hedge funds involved continue to punish the stock, sort of as a lesson to those CEOs who would be stupid enough to tackle the entrenched power base that runs the market, and the country. Given the FOIA data we know about on OSTK, we know that millions of shares have been abusively created by the system, so I'm not sure how else to answer your question. Only an idiot would look at that data, and the declining price as FTDs increase, and not figure out that the two were causally linked.

Is your thinly veiled wisdom that because OSTK's earnings in the past have been less than the street felt was appropriate, that somehow the massive, ongoing FTDs are justified, or have no impact?

How about this - deliver all the shares that investors bought and paid for, and then we can argue the merits of the company. Sound good?
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By Little Bo peep on 7/27/2006 7:21 PM
Clen:
My, you sure are a thoughtful considerate lady or gentleman
to stop in and share your wisdom.
Better keep yourself clean and bright the windows are not foggy now.
One can see right in.

You sure the knife is falling?

It could be a razor sharp knife that gets thrown
and the penetration cuts right to the heart.

I have no position in the stock.

However, It is my opinion that the CEO reflects a distinguished man
that will not be restrained by FEAR of punishment from the circle of thugs allowing the manipulation game in the stock market.

Get your seat soon. This show is about to start.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By mhatmccane on 7/27/2006 7:33 PM
Clen,

I would not sell Patrick short, as many people have. If it gets too cheap, he can take it private and then where will the fake shares be.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By rtway1 on 7/27/2006 8:29 PM
Dear Clen, All of the nice people here are being nice and quaint and are trying to answer your dumb ass and staged question. I on the other hand view this in a different light. If you spent any time on these boards and have a I.Q. bigger than your shoe size you have been sent here on a different mission. Any rational person can judge risk reward ratio of Dr. Byrne and his holdings of OSTK to realize that he could of done the screw job a long time ago and not have spent half of his life trying to uncover the obvious , admitted and proven scandals of NSS and manipulation of the press. So my answer to you is Call Gary Weiss for any more answers that meet your agenda. Booyah baby and ski-daddy until the show gets cancelled.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By browntrout on 7/27/2006 8:38 PM
rtway- Yup ya found a wolf in sheep's clothing. Hopefully he gets skinned sooner rather than later. What say Clem, you fraud. Time for your arse to be locked up?
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By bobo on 7/27/2006 9:13 PM
I'm deleting Clem's second post, on balance, as it contributes nothing, is poorly written, and seems to be posted for no reason other than to bait the posters here into responses. This isn't Yahoo, and I won't tolerate that crap. We won't allow the thread to be hijacked with stock specific rants, pro or con, and this is nothing more than an attempt to do so.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By mhatmccane on 7/27/2006 9:49 PM
Right on, Bobo. While we are open to thoughtful discussion, we are not pawns to bashers.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By Granny on 7/28/2006 1:58 AM
We need to have full disclosure of all financial conflicts between all regulatory bodies and the enterprise.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By Martha StirIt on 7/28/2006 4:12 AM
Excellent article. Thank you for bringing it to the attention of many who would not see it otherwise.

To think that the hedge funds with their leverage have the finances to manipulate amounts roughly equal to the US GNP and are unregulated is mind boggling.

To see how quick they are to manipulate the economies of developing nations and hurt the people in countries struggling with desperate poverty shows their character for what it is. We should not deceive ourselves into thinking they would be any less vicious against us and our children.

Our politicians need to comprehend the severity of the risk letting these vermin run the show birngs... They may have money and power but their country will lie in shambles. The rewards of remaining silent are not worth the price.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By Your Government at Work on 7/28/2006 4:25 AM
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=afqymYVSuDKo

"Senator Bond Trades on `Mad Money' Tips, Prompts Ethics Queries

By Kristin Jensen and Jeff St.Onge

July 19 (Bloomberg) -- Many affluent U.S. politicians use blind trusts to make decisions about their assets. Senator Christopher ``Kit'' Bond uses CNBC's ``Mad Money'' and its hyperkinetic host, James Cramer.

The Missouri Republican, a member of the Appropriations Committee, helps spend billions of federal dollars, benefiting businesses across the country. In his spare time, he makes his own investment decisions, aided by a financial adviser and tips from Cramer.

Bond stands out from other senators through the volume of his trades as well as his hands-on approach. Among the 76 transactions he reported last year, he sold as much as $50,000 of shares in SRA International Inc., an information-technology provider that gets 99 percent of its revenue from federal contracts. Bond, chairman of the subcommittee on transportation, also bought call options of Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest maker of earthmoving equipment. "
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By gregcable2002 on 7/28/2006 4:44 AM
Looks like Kit Bond made trades on insider info concerning government contracts.Hummmmm,so thats one of the ways these polititians get paid.The deeper we go the nastier it's going to get.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By Little Bo peep on 7/28/2006 6:04 AM
Bunny,

You and all of the other GOOD EGGS are doing excellent work.

The HOT potatoe is moving much FASTER now in the circle of greed.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By mhatmccane on 7/28/2006 10:55 AM
This just in from the NFI mb at IV ( for Clem, if he's lurking)

The most fascinating part of today's OSTK quarterly CC was Byrne's description of the new DRS (Direct Registry System) for shares that takes your shares out of the DTCC system and registers them directly with OSTK. If you request it from your broker, your shares are no longer eligible to be loaned out. This should be doable within 24 hours. If your broker refuses or makes excuses, it means he is lying to you and never bought the shares you paid for. Patrick advised telling him you want your original money back (what you paid for the shares), and if he balks at that, contact Wes Christian (the lawyer repping OSTK in its law suits against the hedges).

WOW! I wonder how many investors will take Byrne up on this proposition. A lot, I hope. That should put tremendous pressue on the corrupt brokers to start buying real shares (if they can find any LOL!). This would be a great model for other companies to follow.

Patrick also noted that he has heard people are getting over 50% to loan out their OSTK shares (and even as much as 120%, annualized, for short term loans)!!!
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By Old Duffer on 8/2/2006 8:11 AM
Patrick is right, there is one mastermind behind everything going on in the markets with this manipulation.

The thing he may not realize, or has not saiid is this one controls much more of what you are reading about in the news coming out all over the world...think midleast.

In the end though, even though he does not believe it, he is dead too.

I have learned things in the last couple of weeks that both scare me and gives hope also. As a old history buff I am suprised I didn't see this before as it is all down to be seen for what it is. It is not a suprise that the same game gets played over and over again over the centurys as the author and family stays the same and constant.The plan has worked too many times for it to be changed.

Call me nuts, but I know He and they lose in the end.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By dawgman... on 7/27/2006 11:49 AM
Bobo, sometimes this thing makes me want to scream. Its a comedy, farce and tragedy all rolled together. I can not believe that we are now in the position of looking to democrats and the likes of Hillary Clinton to fix a Wall Street that is now terribly broken!!!! Are there no reporters who can not be bought? Are there no reporters who have the balls to take a stand against this? Thank god for the likes of you and Patrick.

“One observer we spoke to recently suggested that Congress and the SEC are still trying to understand hedge funds. Mr. Cox seems to be getting close. Investors are just hoping Mrs. Clinton and her ilk don't get in the way. Congressional restraint is contingent on Republicans holding their majority. Just this week, Senator Clinton unveiled a moderate Democratic agenda that demands "greater oversight" of hedge funds to force funds to focus on "the long term" despite the fact that hedge funds are so popular because their supposedly "short-term" strategies can help investors reduce the overall risk of their long-term portfolios. One observer we spoke to recently suggested that Congress and the SEC are still trying to understand hedge funds. Mr. Cox seems to be getting close. Investors are just hoping Mrs. Clinton and her ilk don't get in the way.”

What friggin investors are you talking about (_@_)!
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By Little Bo peep on 7/27/2006 12:16 PM
They know exactly what is going on.

Look at the money behind the media sources. Why would you expect them to be honest, when that is how they eat.
You don't shit where you eat.

The rotten eggs will break one by one. It is already starting.

They will try to turn it into a political battle. It has nothing to do with that. Because the thugs are in both parties and working with thugs offshore to hide the eggs when needed. The "EGO" is so LARGE it thinks it will not get CAUGHT.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By rtway1 on 7/27/2006 12:22 PM
Hey, dawgman don,t forget Hillary parlayed some hog futures or cattle, not sure which one, from $1000 into 100,000 by being an astute investor in the commodities market. Can,t get much smarter than that. She even married Bill, that was a stroke of genius. I don,t think she could do much worse than Shelby. Can,t wait for these law suits to start and start seeing evidence.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By bobo on 7/27/2006 12:29 PM
Check out this article in the globe and mail.

The only fair and balanced coverage is coming from offshore - where the NY machine doesn't own the media.


http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060727.wxrfairfax27/GIStory/
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By a_spectator on 7/27/2006 12:30 PM
What really amazes me is that despite seemingly being on the brink of catastrophe, having several lawsuits filed, relative knowledge of the schemes being played they still have the guts to keep on with their little games, laughing at the rest of the investment community. They must feel so imune and safe. Today OSTK and FFH again have been beaten on unusual nearly impossible volumes considering the float is out of the open market in strong hands, this means there are still brokers over there colluding. It's like sending a message "you see, we master the whole stuff, you can try to defend yourseleves with any mean you wish, we drive any stock we want in the direction we select and as deep as we want". I mean how serious has this to become so that things get fixed?

This is a craps game with tricked dices, no longer a stock market. What about getting out of it and let the sharks eat each other watching from the sidelines.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By hemingway811 on 7/27/2006 12:34 PM
Ties That Bind:

I believe Seth Lipsky is still the Editor of the NY Sun. He is a Harvard graduate. He credits Peter Kann, Dow Jones & Company, for his inspiration to create the Asian Wall Street Journal. He believes newspapers should not worry objectivity or try to hide their political views. He believes the NY Times and the Washington Post are not objective either. Jeez, I wonder what his first clue was?

"I don't believe in journalists having responsibility", Lipsky siad.

Obviously, most of his colleagues agree.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=23600
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By snoozern on 7/27/2006 12:37 PM
I think everyone ought to save copy of that European article. Notice the dateline: 4 days in the future.

That article could disappear without a trace.

Regards,
Rick
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By snoozern on 7/27/2006 12:41 PM
bobo,

This is OT so you may delete it at will. I just looked for a link on this site to IV and could not find one.

Is one forthcoming?

Regards,
Rick
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By Niel Storts on 7/27/2006 12:49 PM
What is the word to describe it???? Oh, bizarre. The strangest parts of all this is that those clowns are stupid enough to think such a keystone kops charade would prove to be effective, and that so many supposedly intelligent people actually fell for the scheme. Homo sapiens?????? Planet of the apes.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By OT: Hillary on 7/27/2006 12:52 PM
REFCO managed Hillary's commodity account. Need say more..
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By hemingway811 on 7/27/2006 1:04 PM
Rick,
<
Is one forthcoming?>>

I was wondering the same thing
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By x. trapnell on 7/27/2006 1:36 PM
A daily immersion in this issue has wrought a strange political alchemy in me. As a democrat and a long-time foe of the current adminstration I'm now convinced that Arlen Specter may be the last honest politician left in Washington.

Woudn't it be a luxury to have a person with proven integrity (and a cancer survivor to boot!) in the White House who would choose other honest people for his adminstration? Probably won't happen in my lifetime, and it didn't work out all that well with Carter, come to think of it, but at least we didn't have criminals in all the major posts (think Treasury. . .). Hard not to be cynical at times such as these.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By gregcable2002 on 7/27/2006 1:40 PM
Our senators don't have a friggen clue as to whats going on,to complicated for their simple minds,thats what wall street banks on.Well,well,now comes some intelligence from the states and the companies that are getting screwed,just wait till the juries get ahold of this crap,heads will roll eventually.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By bobo on 7/27/2006 1:52 PM
I've put in several emails to the lads at IV - offered them a banner ad if they will just send one. No response. I'll put up a link in another week if they don't respond.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By democrats just as bad on 7/27/2006 1:58 PM
The republicats (democrats and republicans) are both up to their necks in this crap.

"The public has an overwhelming interest in knowing what business networks have claims on a president and his family. In this context, Hillary's windfall in the futures market is chilling. . .

Hillary must still feel grateful to James Blair and Tyson Foods, Inc., who allegedly steered her to her trades; and to Refco and its president Thomas Dittmer, which brokered them ...

And the Clintons' futures trading may have made them further beholden to the Stephens bond empire of Arkansas--and entangled them indirectly but significantly with the Pakistani financiers who brought us BCCI.

Hillary's trading came to light in mid-March after Lloyd Cutler took over as White House counsel.

In line with his new policy of "openness," the White House admitted to New York Times investigators that she had plunged $1,000 in the notoriously choppy futures market in October 1978, when her husband had emerged as the clear front-runner in his first race for governor. James Blair, general counsel for Tyson Foods, Inc., was her guide to the market.

By the time she closed her accounts in May 1980, she had cleared $99,540, which allowed the strapped couple to put up a down payment on their house and buy tax-exempt municipal bonds.. "

http://orlingrabbe.com/part33.htm

http://www.the-catbird-seat.net/BCCI.htm
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By democrats just as bad on 7/27/2006 2:09 PM
Continuation:

"The First Couple had reason to be embarrassed. Hillary had worked through the Springdale, Arkansas, office of Refco, a fast-growing Chicago-based commodities broker. Its Arkansas outpost catered primarily to Tyson Foods, the nation's largest poultry firm, whose operations give the small Ozark town a pungent, penetrating odor.

Hillary's personal broker was a professional poker player and 13-year veteran of Tyson Foods named Robert L. "Red" Bone, who had already compiled a substantial record of exchange rules infractions. Just a month before he went to work for Hillary, he had completed a one-year partial suspension on charges of plotting to manipulate the egg-futures market on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. (He later received a second, more serious suspension for violating the first one.)

More significantly, at the end of Hillary's first year of trading, the Chicago Merc itself suspended Bone for three years for "allocating" trades--letting favored customers take the winning trades and dumping the losers on the rest. The action cited "serious and repeated violations of record-keeping functions, order-entry procedures, margin requirements and hedge procedures."

Hillary's account wasn't specifically at issue, but it fit the pattern: her return on her first day of trading--more than $5,000 on $1,000 down--would have been mathematically impossible if Exchange rules were strictly followed.

On October 15, 1979, Hillary's own investment adviser, Tyson counsel Blair, filed a suit charging Red Bone, Refco, and its president Thomas Dittmer with systematically taking their customers to the cleaners.. The Merc and the Board of Trade now run two of the best funded political action committees in the country. In 1993, the Merc's Commodity Futures Political Fund disbursed nearly $200,000, making it the eighth most generous finance, insurance, and real estate PAC. . . ."
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By n-tres-ted on 7/27/2006 3:08 PM
Bobo,

Seems to me the hedge funds are presently regulated so far as illegal trading is concerned. The problem is the laws and regulations are not being enforced by the responsible agencies. The SEC is taking a dive on insider trading and naked shorting per Aguirre, and the Justice Department is doing little or nothing. I would certainly like to think that PB's hopes and faith in the new attitude of the SEC chairman is going to clean up naked shorting, but the job is still out there to be done. The deposition of John Mack upcoming is going to be very important, and the action taken upon it.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By Wicked World on 7/27/2006 3:15 PM

I'm not falling for the political partisan BS. No offense to those of you who get wrapped up in why such and such political party is gonna save us all and the markets too.

Seriously, no offense. But I do not buy for a minute that is a workable solution any time soon. Maybe AFTER a meltdown or crash or collapse or whatever we're heading towards. Yeah then the politicians will be very interested in this problem! They love the after-the-fact finger pointing blame the other party BS. That's what campaigns are built on! TV time! Bickering! Grandstanding! Votes!

I see the politicians generally not giving a sh*t at this juncture. Avoiding the issue. Mostly ignorant. Nearly all the rest are FEIGNING ignorance.

Ask yourself this. With the exception of Bobo, his contributors like Patch, DeCosta and Bud, etc. and a tiny few others, how does it feel to know that you are more informed about such blatant criminal activity than your elected (and very well paid) Senators and Reps? Hell, apparently even the regulators! Also, how does it feel to know that only two or three Senators attended the FULL COMMITEE hearing on such a vitally important matter? And one of them stopped in only long enough to make clear they should not be having the hearing AT ALL!!!!!!!

Please!

Our letters? Trashcanned.

Emails? Delete!

Phone calls? Who got past the summer intern?

Politics? Save your breath; don't even bother until after the failure.

And to Bobo: Thank YOU for not letting politics get in the way!!!
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By bobo on 7/27/2006 3:22 PM
Wicked: It isn't a partisan issue. Criminal behavior never is. That is a red herring. It also isn't an American issue. The miscreants are multi-national. They prey on their fellow man without regard for affiliation, nationality, or creed.

This is an issue of how long the American system is going to embrace criminality over the rule of law, and how far the system will go to sell itself to the highest bidder.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By gregcable2002 on 7/27/2006 3:34 PM
Senator Talent MO.What do you intend on doing about the FTD problem? Duh,we need to clean up the meth epidemic.This is what we get when we confront our elected officials,they divert from the question because they have no clue what a FTD is or how it relates to the SP.I think they don't want to know.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By Wicked World on 7/27/2006 3:59 PM

greg,

That's bad but I think Shelby understands an FTD to be a Fried Turkey Dinner.

Seems like those zany manipulators are running a good ribbing on the old SBC chairman.

Yep! Fried Turkey Dinner. I mean no one from AL gets too upset over fried turkey so what's the biggie, right? Now if we were taliking about fried CHICKEN!

Heads would roll!


Hey! Am I the only one who saw a real creepy smile come over Shelbly each time he lobbed a slow-pitch softball towards Cox?

Spooky.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By n-tres-ted on 7/27/2006 4:53 PM
After reading the Sun editorial, my guess is it grows out of conservative ideology favoring minimal economic regulation, as contrasted with being in cahoots with the crooks of insider trading and naked shorting. Yes, it would seem they must be deaf and blind to miss it all, being right there in NY, so maybe I'm being naive.
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By bobo on 7/27/2006 4:59 PM
That conservative, "no regulation" approach to a self-righting market certainly worked well for the S&L industry. Why not try it with 10 times the money involved - does that mean the taxpayers can expect a $5 trillion bailout package requirement? The minimal intervention approach has never worked in any industry it has been tried in - not food safety, not drug safety, not autos, not environmental...

But hey, let's try it in the largest financial market, with the most snakes!

I know. Why don't we eliminate police, and zoning, and food and water regulation in NY, in the neighborhood where they live - just for a while, and see how that works?
Re: NY Sun Editorial on Hedge Fund Regulation Nicely Sums Up What's Wrong With The NY Press By Clem on 7/27/2006 5:07 PM
Bobo,

Why is Overstock at $17.50?

Is it because of naked shorting or crappy earnings?

Your thoughts

Clem

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