New AZ Bill Submitted, US Chamber Of Commerce Letter To SEC, and Laughable Industry Euphemisms

Arizona introduced a new bill that would require brokers to report the level of FTDs in that state's issuers, or face sanctions. Like the now-pulled VA bill, it requires no new reporting, but rather copying the state securities regulator on current reporting.

And the SEC is apparently already howling and trying to squash it. Informed sources indicate that calls have already gone out to try to get it pulled. So the question is why would the securities regulator chartered with protecting investors be so against transparency for the industry?

Fair question, huh?

Could it be because they have been co-opted, and are now a mouthpiece for Wall Street special interests? That's the only explanation that consistently explains and predicts their behavior to date. They have now been "considering" eliminating the grandfathering provision, and limiting the options MM exception, for 6 months, and even as investors are ruined from naked shorting, they continue to consider.

What is there to consider, really? The 1934 Act makes all failure to deliver against the rules. It requires prompt clearance and settlement.

What's not to get?

The US Chamber of Commerce certainly gets it. This letter is short and to the point. Establish transparency, and require shorts to have to report their short positions, just as longs must. That way we would know if one or two miscreant scumbags are 95% of the short position, in, say, NFI, as well as knowing whether the price has declined 30% due to industry jitters, or a massive coordinated increase in FTDs, designed solely to shake loose shares and damage the company's PPS.

Of course, the industry is against anything that would rein in its riding roughshod over investors. Knowledge is not its friend.

But you know what is? Fun euphemisms, that soften ugly issues like deliberate and systematic stock manipulation, wherein companies and investors are defrauded. An example? This article a well-regarded service is a perfect one, where brokers fined for naked short selling are referred to as "Careless." 

Here's a copy of the headline:

"Long Month for Careless Short Sellers"

So, they aren't manipulative miscreants violating NSS rules and selling with unbridled aggression, abusing the MM exemption, or in most cases, just selling shares they didn't have and which didn't exist, solely to destroy the share price of their victim targets. No, they are "careless", as in, "oops, my bad, I spilled some coffee."

That is like referring to child molesters and statutory rapists as "careless" in verifying the age of their dates.

Fortunately, on Wall Street, nobody has to admit to anything - they merely pay a few dimes and go right on doing whatever they are doing. Investors never see their money back, the bad guys get away with it, and the SROs vainly try to look like they are doing something other than holding the door of the getaway car for Wall Street's biggest crooks.

And folks wonder why I'm writing fewer of these blogs. What more is there left to say, that I haven't, in the last few years? I mean, really, what more needs to be said? The US is losing business as its markets are understood far and wide as hopelessly corrupt, the regulators are worse than the most compromised 1920s Chicago cop, and investors are routinely robbed while politicians and lawmakers smile and stuff their pockets with Wall Street cash.

It is interesting that, as in AZ, there are a few lawmakers who aren't bought and paid for by Wall Street's corrupt elite. Wonder how long it will take to get to them?