Posted on

Article: How Regulating GameStop’s ‘Market Manipulation’ Could Harm Crypto

Article - Media, Publications

How Regulating GameStop’s ‘Market Manipulation’ Could Harm Crypto

Benjamin Sauter, Steven Perlstein, William McGovern and David McGill, 02 March 2021

The ongoing roller-coaster ride of GameStop, dogecoin and other so-called meme stocks has led day traders, market makers and exchanges to attack each other with knee-jerk accusations of “market manipulation.” When this happens, the primary winners are government regulators seeking to expand the scope of their authority. Industry cries of market “manipulation” – from all sides – are not only shortsighted. They also risk setting the market on a path towards an enforcement framework that all market participants may come to regret, no matter what side they think they are currently on.

Reddit takes on Wall Street
Since early this year, by sharing tips and organizing on social media platforms such as Reddit and Twitter, individual traders have been able to rally prices of meme stocks to unbelievable heights. First, it was GameStop, AMC and a handful of other targets, with traders sending prices skyward 1,500% or more. Then, traders set their sights beyond the securities markets: dogecoin (DOGE) rose over 800% in 24 hours after a tweet from Elon Musk rallied the masses behind it.

Read Full Article

Posted on

Article: Aussie Bank Westpac Inks $25M Deal In Rate-Rigging Suit

Article - Media, Publications

Aussie Bank Westpac Inks $25M Deal In Rate-Rigging Suit

Caleb Drickey, 02 March 2021

Australian bank Westpac has agreed to a $25 million deal settling claims that it conspired with a cabal of banking institutions to rig the price of derivatives based on an Australian foreign exchange benchmark.

Tuesday’s proposed deal would also compel Westpac, which denied all illegal conduct or wrongdoing, to turn over information related to the alleged price-fixing conspiracy. This would, according to the investors, strengthen cases against Westpac’s co-defendants and lead to similarly-structured deals with the accused conspirators.

In a memorandum, representatives for the proposed class expressed confidence that the newly announced deal would lead to further victories against defendant banks. Continue reading “Article: Aussie Bank Westpac Inks $25M Deal In Rate-Rigging Suit”

Posted on

Economist: Thomas Sowell

Economist, People

Thomas Sowell  (/soʊl/; born June 30, 1930) is an American economist, social theorist, and senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

Born in North Carolina, Sowell grew up in Harlem, New York. He dropped out of Stuyvesant High School and served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War. Upon returning to the United States, Sowell enrolled at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude[1] in 1958. He received a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1959, and earned his doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968. Continue reading “Economist: Thomas Sowell”

Posted on

Subject: Maria Butina

People, Subject of Interest

Mariia Valeryevna Butina  (Russian: Мария Валерьевна Бутина, sometimes transliterated as Maria Butina or Mariya Butina; born November 10, 1988) is a Russian who was convicted in 2018 of acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia within the United States.

Beginning in 2011, she worked as an assistant for Aleksandr Torshin, a former member of the Federation Council, a member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, and a deputy governor of the Central Bank of Russia. In this role, she worked to infiltrate conservative groups in the US, including the National Rifle Association, as part of an effort to promote Russian interests in the 2016 United States presidential election. Continue reading “Subject: Maria Butina”

Posted on

Entrepreneur: Peter Thiel

entrepreneur, People

Peter Andreas Thiel  (/tiːl/; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. He was ranked No. 4 on the Forbes Midas List of 2014, with a net worth of $2.2 billion, and No. 391 on the Forbes 400 in 2020, with a net worth of $2.1 billion. In 2016, Thiel confirmed that he had funded Hulk Hogan in the Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit because Gawker had previously outed him as gay. The lawsuit eventually bankrupted Gawker.

Born in Frankfurt, he moved with his family to the United States as an infant. He spent a portion of his upbringing in Southern Africa before the family settled in California in 1977. He studied philosophy at Stanford University, graduating with a B.A. in 1989. He then earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1992. Continue reading “Entrepreneur: Peter Thiel”

Posted on

Entrepreneur: Patrick M. Byrne

entrepreneur, People

Patrick M. Byrne  (born November 29, 1962) is an American entrepreneur who was the CEO of Overstock.com. In 1999, Byrne launched Overstock.com after leading two smaller companies, including one owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. In 2002, Byrne took Overstock.com public. Since its initial public offering, Overstock.com has increased revenue to almost $1.8 billion, while achieving profitability in 2009.

In 2005, Byrne became known for his campaign against illegal naked short selling. Byrne and securities regulators maintained illegal naked shorting had been used in violation of securities law to distort prices of public companies’ stock. Under his direction, Overstock.com filed two lawsuits alleging improper acts by Wall Street firms, a hedge fund, and an independent research firm.[5] In each case the defendants settled with Overstock.com out of court. Continue reading “Entrepreneur: Patrick M. Byrne”

Posted on

Subject: Peter Strzok

People, Subject of Interest

Peter Paul Strzok II  (/ˈbluːmənθɔːl/; born February 13, 1946) (/strʌk/, like struck; born March 7, 1970) is a former United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. Strzok was the Chief of the Counterespionage Section and led the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server.

Strzok rose to become a Deputy Assistant Director (one of several) of the Counterintelligence Division, the second-highest position in that division. He also led the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Continue reading “Subject: Peter Strzok”

Posted on

Article: EU Watchdog Told To Crack Down After Wirecard Scandal

Article - Media, Publications

EU Watchdog Told To Crack Down After Wirecard Scandal

Najiyya Budaly, 01 March 2021

The European Union’s markets watchdog must improve its supervision of national regulators, a technical advice group said on Monday after it found that Germany’s largest post-war accounting fraud had laid bare deficiencies in the authority’s oversight of market abuse and auditing rules.

The Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group, which provides advice on policy development to the European Securities and Markets Authority, recommended that ESMA should improve protection for investors and ensure integrity in markets after an accounting scandal at Wirecard AG revealed gaps in its supervision. Continue reading “Article: EU Watchdog Told To Crack Down After Wirecard Scandal”

Posted on

Article: 77% of people surveyed believe Robinhood’s restriction of meme stocks during the GameStop frenzy was market manipulation, new report finds

Article - Media, Publications

77% of people surveyed believe Robinhood’s restriction of meme stocks during the GameStop frenzy was market manipulation, new report finds

Isabelle Lee, 01 March 2021

A survey by data analytics firm Invisibly found that 77% of people believe Robinhood’s restriction of certain stocks at the peak of the Reddit-fueled frenzy amounts to market manipulation.

Commission-free trading app Robinhood has faced significant backlash and scrutiny in the weeks since January’s Reddit-fueled short squeeze, with CEO Vlad Tenev grilled by legislators at February’s congressional hearing over the company’s decision to restrict buying of many of the “meme stocks” at the heart of the saga.

The move took the wind out of the momentum trade, and marked the end of January’s retail trader phenomenon.
Now, a recent study by data analytics from Invisibly found that a majority of people surveyed believe Robinhood’s restriction of meme stocks was market manipulation.

The study, which surveyed 1,300 people during the first week of February, also revealed that 39% felt the market mania was “exciting and good” for investors, while 17% felt it was “exciting but a bad investment.”

28% said the trading phenomenon was a positive event, and “shaking things up from time to time is a good thing”, while 15% felt it was detrimental to markets. Meanwhile, 40% of respondents believe that Robinhood and other retail trading services restricted some stocks to help hedge funds.

The survey paints a stark picture of the public’s perception of what transpired in late January, despite Robinhood stating that it restricted trading of some stocks due to clearinghouse requirements.

Read Full Article