4 stars! his actions in tandem with the counterparts in NC (North Carolina), MA (Mass), CA (Kalifornia), CT (Conn) and a few other states have put the fear of jail time back into the seats of so many hedge fund, mutual fund, trading fund desks/managers that the markets seemed to have been cleaned up substantially.... some in Wall Street have nastily coined the phrase "you've been Spitzer-ed", but we all owe him a debt of gratitude...
To play Devils advocate here this is what Michael Lewis had to say recently regarding Spitzer. FWIW, Liars Poker, phenomenal book IMO. "Tom: You wrote about the culture of Wall Street in your book Liar's Poker. Buy, sell, or hold the prospects for meaningful reform on Wall Street? Lewis: Sell. [New York Attorney General] Eliot Spitzer never set out to achieve meaningful reform. He set out for political gain and he has achieved that. But the structure of the institutions... If you really wanted to eliminate what seems now to have upset everyone about the Internet boom -- which is that these firms were at once taking money from corporations that were issuing stock and advising investors who bought the stock -- you would prevent them from doing both at the same time. The truth is that there is just a huge measure of hypocrisy in the outrage that is aimed at Wall Street right now. All of the abuses that are being paraded before us now were known to the public years ago. Eliot Spitzer could have done something about them in the middle of the Internet boom, but it wasn't politically advantageous to do it then. Tom: And so then buy, sell, or hold the political prospects of Eliot Spitzer? Lewis: Sadly, buy. I mean I really disapprove of him. He gives me the willies. He's one of these people who -- he is absolutely preying on people's worst side. I think he is going to be the governor of New York. The only thing to hope for in the case of Elliot Spitzer -- it's not that he doesn't get to be the governor of New York, because I think he will. It's that he'll meet some grisly end. That he gets to be governor of New York because that's what he wants to be, but that it turns out to be a curse and that he ends up being an awful governor and has a miserable time of it and retires in humiliation." :eek:
Law, Law Enforcement, Threats of Punishment and Active Deterents are all about RESPECT (for the securities laws) irrespective of the agent which represents the Law Enforcement Agency. Simply put to confuse the respect due to the only enforcer (especially since the SEC has not been worth their share) willing to take an active deterent posture with other issues such as political gain disregards the value of anyone (and in this case E. Spitzer) standing up for the principles which we as licensed individuals signed up for. Whether or not ES gets political gain or not, and he should get whatever he asks for; whether or not there's another agenda minimizes the value of re-enstating the law abiding/punishment - deterence effect. So far any deterence and active enforcement has yielded results instead of the total lack of any significant action on the part of the SEC. The points are clear, and to have some other person suggest that they are impartial in their analysis of the Investor friendly/active actions calls into question and total dismissal their participation in the analysis.
A bunch of stupid moms & pops punted on internet stocks and got a hefty 401k haircut due to their own greed, ignorance, and incompetence. Spitzer smells blood and sues anyone with deep pockets, blaming internet pinups like Blodget for the stupidity and mass hysteria/insane greed of a bunch of baby boomer gamblers. But notice he doesn't go after the real big fish for fear of getting into a full scale political/power war with bigger hitters than himself, thus derailing his nefarious political ambitions. Also notice how he kept his mouth shut in 1999, when taking action could have stopped the carnage and saved grandmothers from busting out their pension funds on dot.con junk. No, he'd rather see private investors go broke first, and only then step in to scavenge on their carcasses for his own private gain. The man is nothing short of scum in human form. The "laws" he is enforcing are totally illegitimate. He spits on the principle of caveat emptor. People like him are destroying what little remains of the notion of personal responsibility in today's world. "Sue 'em all, let God sort them out" seems to be the only principle he learned in ethics class. In his defence, he is just continuing a long line of absolute wankers in the NY attorney general's office.
I believe you are right he would have shown real courage in 1999. But the theft corrouption and disrespect for the law was going to make are markets unstable. In the long run if the laws says you should have the following facts and count on them, then for your system to work those facts must be reliable. Consequently bullshit earnings should not be tolerated. Two when Henry Blodgett got on TV (and all the others) and lied, they should be put in jail for fraud. Anything short of that should not be tolerated. I still do not feel that anyone has paid enough of a price for those lies. Why should they have gotten away with millions for running scams. There is no reason to accept disinformation. There is plenty of money left if everyone plays by the rules. A guy like blodgett should make millions for lying. Merrill should make billions and lie. I just do not see why that should be defended. I do not know enough about spitzer to say he is a good guy, but I know the SEC is putrid. That makes spitzer look great to me.
spitzer's gone after a lot of fraud in ny state. recently teamed up with microsoft going after a major league spammer.... went after others during his time here. i wish other AGs were doing as much as spitzer is... when he starts going after things that *aren't* broken, then i'll get worried.
I'm not saying any generation doesn't have members it can point fingers at, but I saw a lot of twenty-somethings being largely responsible. First, many of them were involved in the creation of giant dotcoms that flopped, seeing their stock quadrillionize as they cashed out, essentially creating huge wealth for themselves out of businesses that can't make a dime and instead burn millions, and lost zillions for others. Secondly, a large crowd of college kids and college grads were putting everything they had, like school loans, into the market and when they were advised differently by older wiser folks, like members of the baby boom class and older, what was their common retort back? "It's different this time" and "This is the new economy! You are the old economy". Weren't they the gamblers, banking on that there was a difference and that this was a new economy?
One of the ultimate, ultra wealthy insiders gave the NYS AG's office the tip (actually guided their hands in discovery; more than just a tip, explained how the fraud worked) on the MF (mutual fund) trading "unholy alliances" with the Hedge Funds that a number of the MF Executives were running themselves. Imagine that, all those persons you failed to mention, like the highly educated, Ivy League degreed Country Club types who were doing nothing more than shifting hats and slight of hands between being the executives on the boards or companies of these funds and being major investors and/or operators of these much vaunted hedge funds. Talk about the ultimate front running scam. I hope you saved as much gore, gile, hatred and ill will (words) for those types, also. Let's not leave them out of the equation.
where can I send this man the Award of the Year? perhaps, I'll have him cast in my next commercial....(hmmmmm)