Posted on 05/08/2010 11:11:25 AM PDT by billorites
Somewhere – wherever his eternal home is – Dick Nixon is smiling today. He pulled a lot of shady, underhanded, illegal stuff in his life. But he’s potentially giving the Commander in Chief props today.
On Thursday, the New York Stock Exchange was brought to its knees by what many reports are saying was “one stray trade” or “one mistakenly stroked key” on a keyboard. Investigators are trying to find the singular cause of the problem that caused the largest point swing in the history of investments.
On Thursday afternoon, CNBC’s Money Honey, Maria Bartiromo, said, “I mean this really sounds like market manipulation to me. This is outrageous.” Her comments weren’t made to colleagues off the record; they were said on the network, in the midst of the meltdown.
Ironically enough, Obama’s financial reform measure languishing in Congress may actually have received a huge shot in the arm by this horrifying result. What an amazing coincidence. Hmmm.
“Wait a minute, Coco,” you’re probably wondering. “Are you hinting that the President of the United States, less than two weeks removed from coming down from Heaven and spending a day or two with us mortals in Quincy – on this very Earth – may possibly have had something sinister to do with the collapse on Wall Street on Thursday? Can you seriously be alleging the biggest point swing in the history of mankind’s investments was possibly done by this administration’s leaders?”
Yep.
Let me be clear. There is no known paper trail, and if this administration is half as smart as I think they are, there wouldn’t be one to find, either. But do I seriously think it’s within the wide, wide realm of possibilities that this administration helped manipulate this situation?
Absofreakinglutely.
“But Coco,” you’re surely gasping, “you can’t possibly be serious? You really think this genuine savior of the 21st century could possibly be willing to inflict so much personal and financial pain across the world simply for his own political and professional gain?”
I hate repeating myself, but yep. I don’t even know that it’s likely, but I can guarantee you it’s possible.
Look at the facts. Democrats in Congress just this week took a huge political sock to the mouth. They quietly gave up a major component of their financial reform bill, giving up on the $50 billion fund to supposedly prevent future bailouts from occurring. Oh, and that’s what always happens, by the way. Whenever government has a pot of money to manage, no matter where the money is coming from, it’s always managed efficiently and never blown away. Just look at the Social Security Trust Fund, right? But I digress.
Congress agreed to drop the $50 billion fund measure, but there still isn’t uniform agreement to move this bill anytime soon.
Hmmm…how could they get momentum – fueled by public support – for a bill like this? Wow. I don’t know. If they could only politically benefit from a financial crisis the likes of which hasn’t been seen before and start getting the talking heads chatting about the potential need for reform… if only that amazingly cataclysmic set of circumstances would occur…I mean, what are the odds, right?
The main reason this Obama option is a possibility is that this administration absolutely despises big business. They’ve spent the better part of the last 15 months exacting their revenge on those that they feel have ruined this country.
Insurance companies and the medical profession? Welcome to Obamacare. Energy companies? Cap and trade and the climate bill. The oil spill off the Gulf Coast? Those mean old oil companies.
Democratic Congressman Paul Kanjorski said on Thursday evening the market on Thursday – with one day of trading insanity that may possibly have been caused by one errant keystroke – was “just as volatile as the situation we faced in 2008.” Fascinating.
Cause calamity, crisis, and panic…and now you’ve got some serious momentum. Proof? Nope. Possibility…let’s see how the next few days play out.
I don’t know if there was a financial Lee Harvey potential wannabe in New York City or not. But do you wanna guess what the underlying topic of the Sunday shows will be? It ain’t gonna be the oil slick or terrorism. Financial Reform 101, friends, and there’s only one man who stands to politically benefit – the same man that has dedicated his presidency to tearing apart the fabric of free market enterprise in this country; the same man who believes the government should be in charge of the air you breathe, the doctors you see, and now the money you invest and (barely) get to keep.
This is the same man who, just a few weeks ago, asserted, “I do think at some point you’ve made enough money.” As an aside, I wonder if he told that to Oprah?
This is definitely change, all right. But if this is actually true, it’s the scariest kind. It now resembles some Tom Clancy novel. I wish I knew what really happened, but for now, I just wish I knew Jack…Bauer or Ryan would work fine.
I postulated this very thing the afternoon that it happened.
Demonizing Wall Street is nothing new. The markets are down because of the trading error, oil spill, and instability in Greece.
I bet Soros made a few million$ on this little trip.
No such animal as a “coincidence” when it comes to this regime.
Yes, the ends justify the means for this regime. That word is really catching on. Rush loves it but it bugs the messiah.
As one who is NOT given to getting off into the conspiratorialist weeds, I have to say that this looks VERY MUCH like market manipulation writ large.
ping
pinging
H1N1 preceded the government/fascist Health Care takeover.
A somewhat large oil drilling leak is preceding a “no-drill” policy.
Could there be any question that this market manipulation is connected with the desire by those in Washington to take over the markets as well?
This is an insult to Richard Nixon. For all his faults, he loved his country.
the real truth is... all the traders on wall street are on a hair trigger. they know the game is almost up, and they are staying in for the last dollar.
when that day comes, 1,000 points will seem small.
Which makes the Marxist's task that much easier. Obambi's got leverage.
0bama loves his country as well...
question is, which country is that?
Most of this may be correct but there are a couple of tweeks you may want to consider.
- The the 0bamament is seeking to take more control of the financial industry and the securities and exchanges.
- The trading error may not have been a trading error. It may have been the result of a confluence of an enormous amount of programmed transactions which involved unwinding of derivatives which could have geometrically enlarged the volume and all hit at the same moment.
- Finally, the market has become frothy and it is time for a correction.
"But the algorithms - that is, automated computer trading systems that represent the so-called "innovation" that the big banks want to make damn sure continue to skim off pieces of the productive economy for them, triggered off and drove enough SELL orders to collapse all bids.
"On a technical level what happened in the DOW is easy: NBBO, or national best bid and offer, was proved to be a JOKE.
"That is, when the NYSE specialist system went into "slow mode", which they do as a protective measure, electronic trading went around it into the "second market."
"That's nonsense - the premise of NBBO is that this is simply not supposed to happen, in that if I come to buy I'm supposed to get the best (lowest) offer, and if I sell I'm supposed to get the best (highest) bid. When NBBO is circumvented by computer systems that are allowed to "trade around" the specialists that have started examining what's going on you have a market that gets instantly gamed by the computers and in this case it caused a crash.
"Let me be clear: Any trader or investor selling got filled at $0.01 in Accenture yesterday while the NYSE had a higher bid, irrespective of whether it took them 30 seconds to fill you or not, should, if there are actually cops on the beat, be able to force the trading venue that filled them to make good on the difference that they were robbed of.
"Of course actually enforcing NBBO in this fashion would likely bankrupt every one of the venues and/or brokerages responsible for the 'reach around", so you can bet it won't happen - you, the trader or investor, will get hosed instead."
-- Karl Denninger
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