And if Obama becomes POTUS, will he appoint Barney Frank or Rangell as secretary of the treasury?
Posted on 09/18/2008 10:44:10 AM PDT by Fred
Republican presidential candidate John McCain, in remarks prepared for delivery Thursday, said he thought Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be dismissed.
"The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the president and has betrayed the public's trust," he was planning to say in Iowa, according to a text released in advance of the speech by his campaign. "If I were President today, I would fire him."
In a speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sen. McCain said the SEC allowed abusive short-selling, or bearish bets on a company's stock, to turn "our markets into a casino."
Short-sellers have been blamed for piling into commercial and investment bank stocks and driving stock prices lower. Investment banks have been suffering from heavy write-offs from subprime mortgage debt and their falling stock prices have made it harder for them to raise money.
Sen. McCain also criticized Mr. Cox for eliminating a trading rule that acted as a speed bump to prevent short-seller from pounding a stock. The rule, known as the uptick, said traders could only place short-sales following a higher bid in a stock price. The SEC eliminated the rule in July 2007, and market participants have been urging the SEC to reinstate the rule ever since. Mr. Cox has said the rule is ineffective today since markets have changed since it went into effect around the Great Depression.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Sorry.... mistaken cross-post on the "nanny state" bit. Your comments had to do with "the government getting involved."
Sounds like you're speaking from painful experience. Rush often warns about advice from those that do poorly; my take is that anyone with talent who's willing to work hard can do quite well in stock trading. Those that don't believe me can just ask my tax auditor.
Absolutely. Talk about deflecting the blame...
Very much true.
I was just reading about how one of the smaller European bourses fell 10% the day after all short selling was banned. Also, the Pakistan exchange's volume dropped to nothing -- the market wasn't functioning -- so short selling had to be permitted again.
No ... I'm simply suggesting that almost all individuals have very little effect on overall market results, because (unless they're incredibly rich) their investments represent only a tiny fraction of the total money in the market.
What you're describing is a knack at spotting and taking advantage of short-term up and down trends. But those are fluctuations that you don't actually control: they're generally driven by the guys whose normal trades run in the millions of dollars.
individuals don’t play with fire; that’s why they either take the time and effort to educate themselves properly or hire a professional to do it for them.
...chaired by Christopher Dodd (D - CT)...do not expect any action this year. To link the last few years' financial fiascos on Bush/McCain serves their political purposes
And if Obama becomes POTUS, will he appoint Barney Frank or Rangell as secretary of the treasury?
markets are self ordering. The govt is just a bunch of stupid rent-seeking politicians and gets in the way.
Ah, my bad. I mistakenly assumed that you were talking about something that with which you were familiar. The reality that successful traders know is that the smaller trades earn far greater returns than big trades. Feel free to ping me anytime you want to know how it works and I can explain it --it's actually quite simple.
Indeed. You, assume, for instance that a trader such as yourself is in the same league as a Goldman Sachs or a Lehman Brothers. In reality your experience, while undoubtedly impressive, is not particularly relevant to the sorts of things that are currently rocking the markets.
Uh .... check out my posts - I’m a conservative supporting McCain half-hearetedly and Palin very enthusiastically.
I just happen to think George Bush II turned our far worse than George BushI and THAT is going one. The Bushes are NOT conservatives. They are corporate versions of the U.N. globalists.
I appreciate your careful response. However your conclusion about the impact of the uptick rule seems greatly exaggerated. We had two major economic events that rocked the market this week. With already nervous investors, these two events were bound to cause a sharp reaction.
Without a lot more data such as the volume and timing of the trades, I do not think any conclusions can be made about the uptick rule. I would be swayed by careful studies. Short selling has an economic purpose. I do not think there is any consensus that the uptick rule has caused major harm.
>>Uh .... check out my posts - I’m a conservative supporting McCain half-hearetedly and Palin very enthusiastically.
I just happen to think George Bush II turned our far worse than George BushI and THAT is going one. The Bushes are NOT conservatives. They are corporate versions of the U.N. globalists.<<
My commment was not to question your conservatism; in fact, I think you are solidly on my side. I just think Dems in congress like Rangell and Frank deserve as much negative attention as the the executive branch.
I pretty much agree with you, except I don’t know what Palin thinks about amnesty. I hope she doesn’t go over to the Dark Side on that issue.
“I just think Dems in congress like Rangell and Frank deserve as much negative attention as the the executive branch.”
I agree absolutely. But we EXPECT Democrats to act like that which is why we vote Republican. So when we get a Republican like Bush, that makes us even madder. But much as I am supporting McCain and Palin, I don’t expect McCain to be much better than Bush II - probably worse. The best case scenario is McCain gets elected, Palin gets two years experience and old age forces McCain out of office.
I don’t know where Palin sits on amensty. My guess is she far closer to us than she is to McCain.
Personally, I think the way to deal with illegals is to put people who hire them out of business or in jail, cut off all Federal Funds to any local jurisdictions which provide “Amensty” or declare them in rebellion against the Federal Government for conspiring to subvert Federal laws, and arrest all and any officers of any other group which offers amensty.
Do that and a lot of them will leave and those who don;t want to will be forced out of the darkness. I certainly don’t support a blanket amnesty and disapprove of guest workers (= rent a slave). But if somebody is here and has been here for say, 10 years or 5 years, or whatever, has a job, has a family, has no criminal record,WANTS to be an AMERICAN citizen and is learning OUR langauge, we should make some kind of accomodation for him/her - as long as they not Muslims.
But, BOTTOM LINE - the border MUST be sealed and the Mexican Government needs a good dose of “Yankee Justice” the next time their cretin military dares to cross our borders or threaten American border guards.
We will agree to disagree then. Unless you have actual experience working with clients and regulators in the investment, financial services, and capital markets industry for a number of years, you might be less qualified to speak on this topic than you think.
Short selling does have a purpose, but naked short selling does not - it is essentially counterfeiting shares of publically traded stock. Just as counterfieting money can lead to the destabilization of a country’s currency, counterfeiting shares of stock leads to the destabilization of the financial markets.
Did you check out the 2 year chart on the VIX Index? That volatility spike is directly correlated with the removal of the Uptick Rule by the SEC.
By the way, I hope you’re still not defending the competence of Chris Cox as head of the SEC. Yesterday John McCain publically call for his dismissal and President Bush was forced to make a statement regarding Cox. He’s still standing by him, but Cox will be gone soon.
If Cox does not have the confidence of the investment community, he has performed poorly. The most important part of his job is to have investor confidence. I appreciate your perspective on this matter. I agree that naked short selling is dubious although I thought that some form of naked short selling was legal. On the uptick rule, I am not ready to declare its removal a bad practice. Given the climate now, there is no chance that allowing short sales on down ticks will be allowed so the debate does not matter.
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