Posted on 09/18/2008 8:20:51 PM PDT by balls
The damage being done to stocks through short selling, where Wall Street’s most legendary institutions are losing value at alarming rates, could be the work of financial terrorism.
Cramer’s been talking to the short sellers he knows, and that’s the theory they’ve been putting forward. His sources said that it’s doubtful that the market’s traditional short sellers are behind the negative action we’ve seen lately. So there is the possibility that someone else has been trying to wreak havoc in the markets rather than just profit from the problems of Goldman Sachs [GS 108.00 -6.50 (-5.68%) ], Morgan Stanley [MS 22.55 0.80 (+3.68%) ] and others.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
No, more like the Chinese IMO.
The Soros angle is interesting and plausible.
Don't know. I leave that to people who know a heck of a lot more about it than me... but how about, for starters, forbidding floor traders and US-based brokers from accepting trades from overseas accounts?
Not trying to punish anyone after the fact (though the courts do that all the time), I'm just trying to figure out how to prevent terrorists from continuing what Cramer says they're doing, or prevent them from doing something worse in the future.
“The problem we have now, and why there are so many bubbles are that hedge fund managers are so desperate for a quick score so they can make their hurdles and get huge payouts that they are running from new idea to new idea and piling on. The guys driving down the financial stocks are the same ones who brought you $147 oil two months ago. It’s a need for performance and a lack of proprietary ideas.”
But we have posters on here who say that speculators perform a useful function in the futures market, that all trading is speculation and that speculators could not have driven oil prices to $147.00, that the prices reflect real supply and demand.
I believe you’e probably correct, but actual traders defend their preferred tactics and say they are not the problem.
There needs to be some independent investigation of this, and I think there are many trading and speculative tactics that need to be ended, because the financial markets have become far too much a casino for speculators, and combined with the subprime problem, they have created the worst financial crisis in many decades. And both Democrats and Republicans have made big contributions to this.
And from some of the comments, it seems the markets have no way of knowing who is behind many of the transactions.
What information would the Russians have?
True, as a buyer or seller, you don’t know who’s on the other side of the trade. But your broker damn sure knows who you are.
An attack from Russia? Iran? Bin Laden (in fact, he did warn of a financial terror attack a few days ago, I believe.) Probably the same gang who's been working AIG & Lehman. Morgan would be a great prize for them...a scion of American capitalism.
I was working this conspiracy theory in my mind earlier today. Imagine my surprise to find the Great Cramer thinking the same thing.
Some were making the point in this thread that they don’t know who is conducting the high volume of short selling. I guess they meant that they as individuals don’t know, and apparently the markets haven’t seen fit to find out to this point.
No, no it not Obama's fault, it's not Bush's fault, it's not Soro's fault, it's not Congresses fault, it's not the SEC's fault, it's not the Federal Reserves fault, not Palin's fault, it's not the banks fault, not Clinton's fault, not Wall Streets fault...
You think any of these people controlling and managing this disaster would resign?
Not a freaking chance.
I know nothing about economics or financial matters but I have wondered for a long time if people wanting Obama in could manipulate the market.
Bin Laden & his ilk (the Russians too) can't stand the thought of McCain winning. I will not be surprised if Andrew Cuomo finds out terror is at play here.
We’ve been talking about that over here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2085555/posts
this crisis is a lot of STOCK MARKET BULL SHEET.
Today the DOW has gone down from around 14,000 to 11,000. 3k. Around 21 percent. From Oct. 2007 to present.
Consider that in the 2000 - 2002 time span the market lost 36 percent. Included in this was the worst terrorist attack in US history.
From around 11,700 to 7,800. 4k.
It was much worse then and we didn’t have the Government freaking out and handing out almost a trillion bucks and taking on more trillions worth of loans.
But this time its during a Presidential Election!
....this time the congress is controlled by democrats
....this time the ability to short stocks is much greater because the democrats got rid of the UPTICK RULE....
- it required that a short sale be made only at a price “higher than the last different price.” In other words, you couldn’t short a stock unless it first ticked up an eighth- or a quarter-point.
Thursday - short selling of financial stocks has been banned in Britain
If before
the DOW dropped 36 percent from 11000 and we survived,
.. yet now we drop 21 percent from 14000 and we are worse off?
There has been a real attempt this week to destroy some of the financial bastions of the economy. There was starting to be talk of CD's being less than they were bought for, FDIC not able to cover bank accounts, etc. And the shorts were making it seem like these stocks were going down on valuation, instead of just plain abusing short trading. Runs on banks could have been one of the next steps if the Gov't was seen to be standing idly by.
We're not out of the woods yet, but we're starting to address the meat and potatoes of the problems now. Thank God.
I have read the Russian markets have lost close to 50% value of late.
I wouldn't rule anything out from a crowd that supports a treasonous SOB that tried to delay withdrawal of American troops from Iraq to make it appear Bush's surge policy was a failure!!
That’s true.
Do you think that Up Tick rule being eliminated in 2007 makes any difference?
I never have thought much of short selling. If you want to sell a stock sell it, but shorting has always seemed a stretch to me.
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