[Zebra]

As a prelude to regulatory reform, how about starting with an inquiry as to why the SEC scuttled the uptick rule at the top of the market in July of 2007? I believe that the origin of that rule was right after the Great Depression to curb some of the worst abuses that contributed to the depth and severity of the market collapse. Following the repeal of the uptick rule, the Dow lost over half of its value in just over 19 months.

The elimination of this long-standing rule allowed opaque and lightly regulated hedge funds to pile on financial and other stocks without any mechanism for relief. Combined with naked shorting, this--as much as the absurd mark-to-market rules--exacerbated the loss of wealth associated with this recession.

I would like to see the meeting minutes that contained the advocacy positions for this rule change and who initiated and supported it. I would like to see the so-called studies that were relied upon (and who commissioned them). I would like to know if the proposed repeal was vetted with business leaders and non-hedge fund money managers.

I would like to see an analysis of the post rule change market dynamics and what conclusions regarding the rule's repeal are supported.

I believe some hedge funds profited outrageously at the expense of most Americans because of the repeal of the uptick rule.

[L,TOWM]

All good points — to reinforce your comments, I’ll point out what happened to Bear Stearns and the subsequent reinstatement of the uptick rule, the financials went back to an orderly decrease. Rule goes back to no uptick required and its Lehman’s turn to get hammered by shorting.

Of course a lot of hedge funds made money ooff of this. And a lot of them lost their a$$e(t)$, too.