Money Beat

Everybody paying attention knows that short selling and naked short selling helped fan the flames of these companies going under.

With this new government intervention though, you'll see inflation go up and increasing interest rates. Better fix the rate on your adjustable loans now if you can.

So someone remembers the 'uptick rule'. This is classis poor deregulation. It it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. Especially if you are the SEC.

I can't help but think this one smells fishy. So now 799 preferred financial stocks get complete protection from short sellers, while the rest of the market remains completely exposed. Talk about preferrential treatment! Why not just bring back the uptick rule?

I can't help wondering if part of the market's rally was the result of panic _buying_ as short-sellers scrambled to cover their positions before prices climbed too high.

To Elliot Spitzer:

Why did you become governor of New York and not control your sexual urges?Ironic that this mess started after Spitzer stopped going after people. I wonder who tipped off his promiscuity.
Where would we be if Spitzer stayed as Attorney General?

They should stop allowing short selling altogether - it is based on betting against success, rather than betting for success. People buy on news and sell on rumor. It is too easy to manipulate the market this way because it is human nature to believe bad news blindly - and act on it...without checking first.

the problem isn't short selling, the problem is naked short selling. With naked short selling you sell shares that basically don't exist. With normal short selling you have to borrow shares before you sell them.

INSANITY! You can only make money shorting if the stock is overvalued.

First, why should the American people bail out these corporations when there are PLENTY of other financial institutions that will take there place in a matter of months.

Second, if the government wants liquidity, then it should give loans to
"good banks" that are not in financial trouble to give loans or give another rebate.

Third, our country is going to go bankrupt trying to save these corrupt out-moded institutions.

Fourth, the bail out is giving new executive powers to the presidency and the treasury department.

Americans must be the dumbest citizens of any first world nation in the world.

And that's why were going to be a 2nd, maybe even 3rd world nation in a few short years.

Tell your congressman and reps "NO BAIL OUT"!

I am not a stock player. To me, buying short is simply an empty scam, like playing roulette where you bet that red or black, odd or even or play 0 and 00 so if everybody loses, you win. It is gambling pure and simple. You buy short hoping that the company stock tanks. How unethical is that? Futures is another scam. Futures should be banned also. It should be pay as you go.
JA

The bigger problem is that about a year ago the SEC got rid of the "uptick rule" for short sales. The only way dropping that rule made sense is if someone at the SEC took a bribe, or had some other hidden conflict of interest. The ironic thing is that Lehman CEO Richard S. Fuld, Jr. was a big advocate of dropping the uptick rule. The ego maniac never thought his own company was being protected by that rule.

Execs pointing to short selling is a smoke screen. These execs have fatally wounded their companies, investors and employees and are trying to shift the blame. Their stock prices have plummeted because their partners/customers are withdrawing business - a run on their business. Institutional $mangers are selling the stocks accordingly. Short sellers see it happening and jump on for the ride. Greedy Wall St execs knowingly took on massive risk leveraged to the gills without regard for the consequences - that's what greed is after all - in so doing they've destroyed these companies. They are to blame - not opportunistic short sellers. Solvent companies with good quality earnings and reasonable debt are immune to short selling. That is the point -

This is to do what?? "...protect the integrity and quality of the securities market and strengthen investor confidence.” How does not allowing folks to guess a security is a dud and put his buck where his short-sale slip is ever protect the "...quality of the securities market..." when it appears to be more of a no-security-here market?
Some how this protects "...integrity...". Folks, I am dull witted....I don't understand it. Do you feel you have a "...strenghtened consomer confidence..." soul since Wall Street won't let you sell it? Yup, just dull witted I guess, just can't think straight.

This does what?? Well it is “to protect the integrity and quality of the securities market and strengthen investor confidence.” How does it "..protect the integrity...of the securities market" if you can not sell the "security" duds short. Your saying they are "no-security-here" pieces of paper" and saying it with both personal integrity and your savings account. Your willing to put your buck where your short-sales slip indicates but little did you know you are destroying the "..integrity of the securities market...".
With this action is your soul now over whelmed with strengthened "..investor confidence..."?

Stopped short selling but didn't freeze gas prices...........interesting...

bring back the uptick rule.... in one year short sellers have crashed the market... Jay Gould lives.... the uptick rules protects the market from accelarating downward price swings and put on brakes to upward swings in stock prices.... legislate it into the USCODE..

"Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million

Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.

Mr. McCain, the Republican candidate for president, has recently begun campaigning as a critic of the two companies and the lobbying army that helped them evade greater regulation as they began buying riskier mortgages with implicit federal backing. He and his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, have donors and advisers who are tied to the companies.

But last week the McCain campaign stepped up a running battle of guilt by association when it began broadcasting commercials trying to link Mr. Obama directly to the government bailout of the mortgage giants this month by charging that he takes advice from Fannie Mae’s former chief executive, Franklin Raines, an assertion both Mr. Raines and the Obama campaign dispute.

Incensed by the advertisements, several current and former executives of the companies came forward to discuss the role that Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager and longtime adviser, played in helping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac beat back regulatory challenges when he served as president of their advocacy group, the Homeownership Alliance, formed in the summer of 2000. Some who came forward were Democrats, but Republicans, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed their descriptions."

SEE: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/us/politics/22mccain.html?_r#1&adxnnl#1&oref#slogin&ref#us&adxnnlx#1222103488-5de8RfsUDRInL0G4at2vFw

Fifty years ago the speed of buy, sell, speculate wasn't nearly the pace that the speed-of-light internet has given us. While it's unreasonable to say unplug it, it's reasonable to put in controls to slow it down, to stop the frenzied cycles, to place buyers into a position that investments aren't a one day whim and profits had by encouraging them are removed. In other words...take the conflict of interest and profiteering out of wall street.

In "SHORT"we need the"UPTICK RULE"returned........

SEC appears SICK in my opinion.

Putting former Congressman Chris Cox, and such people like Diego Ruiz, from Orange County CA (AKA "ORANGE CURTAIN") at the helm of the SEC, just blows the mind!!!!!
Guess everyone forgot about the Orange County Bankrupcy and all the corruption there
An affluent County, where white collar crime has been effectively decriminalized, and Racketeer Influenced Organizations found a safe harbor