From Bloomberg: source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPE.Apdv7m2E&refer=home article title "SEC to Limit Short Sales of Fannie, Freddie, Brokers"
I worked for Mother Merrill, please don't hold that against me. It's been a while... None the less, they always found a way to cover their asses. No question. I wonder how much longer they can keep this up though...
Oh bullshit. Im not saying go out there and do illegal stuff but if those companies were so good why didnt they get bought out? Why didnt they go private? Horse shit. Shorselling has nothing to do with what the market is going through.
Good point. Its only after these garbage companies go bankrupt, ENRON? That they blame everyone but themselves for their downfall. Shortsellers being one of them.
HaHa - SEC only concerned about naked shorting NOW? Like the Fed cracking down on lenders - A BIT LATE TO THE PARTY BOYS!
Blame everything and everyone except their stupid fucking policy that created this mess. High oil prices? Lets have hearings and yell at the oil company ceo's. Never mind all the free money prinnting going on thats driving the dollar 6 feet under.
The title of the article ought to be: "The SEC will actually attempt to enforce their own rules (but just for two stocks)"
BTW, they've now postponed the Magna Carta until Monday. LOL What criminals. ngtime Market Reform Advocate Issues Statement on SEC's Proposed New Fannie/Freddie Regs Overstock.com Wonders When The Rule of Law Will Be Extended to All Companies instead of the SEC's Apartheid Solution SALT LAKE CITY, July 15, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Today, in response to news that the SEC will institute an emergency order to curtail naked short selling of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock by requiring traders to pre-borrow the stock, Overstock.com chairman and CEO and a longtime advocate for anti-naked short selling reform, Patrick Byrne issued the following statement: "I wholeheartedly celebrate Christopher Cox's decision to enforce the rule of law as it regards trading in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock. It looks like the SEC may finally be getting the joke. For years, members of Congress, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, academics, Overstock and other companies have been calling for a pre-borrow to stop the manipulative trading of abusive naked short sellers. What I don't understand is why the SEC is extending the rule of law only to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We now have an apartheid capital market. "The act of trading stocks without borrowing them first is a particularly egregious form of illegal market manipulation that has threatened our financial system for too long. I urge the SEC to extend the rule of law to the entire market, and not simply favored quasi-governmental corporations. Now that we are experiencing systemic failure, precisely as naked shorting activists predicted, we should ask the SEC: Why should two corporations alone deserve the protection for which hundreds of other firms have been unsuccessfully clamoring?" said Byrne.
I've yet to take a stand on the naked shorts. Yes, I know, I'm a retail broker and RIA... My concern is that the SEC will have a "go get 'em" warrant with new powers, hurting those who aren't doing harm to begin with, while taking out a FEW of the true "bad guys" in the process. Any time the regulators get more power, it typically pans out to be a profit center for them...:eek:
The SEC doesn't survive. You'll see some stuff on Cox pretty soon. He was an ex Securities Attorney at one time, and has a legacy, I understand. If they would just do this one thing, it might save us bailing out FRM and FNE. But they just aren't here for very long. They've sided with the money, placed their staff with big money firms, and sold the rest of us down the river.