Tag: Morgan Stanley

Posted on

Article: The Emperor is Naked: David Stockman

Article - Media

The Emperor is Naked: David Stockman

Karen Roche, JT Long

The Gold Report cited by NASDAQ.com, 4 May 2012

A “paralyzed” Federal Reserve Bank, in its “final days,” held hostage by Wall Street “robots” trading in markets that are “artificially medicated” are just a few of the bleak observations shared by David Stockman, former Republican U.S. Congressman and director of the Office of Management and Budget. He is also a founding partner of Heartland Industrial Partners and the author of The Triumph of Politics: Why Reagan’s Revolution Failed and the soon-to-be released The Great Deformation: How Crony Capitalism Corrupts Free Markets and Democracy.The Gold Report caught up with Stockman for this exclusive interview at the recent Recovery Reality Check conference.

Read full article.

Posted on

Article: Morgan Stanley Challenges “ETF Collapse” Theory

Article - Media

Morgan Stanley Challenges “ETF Collapse” Theory

ETF, 24 September 2010

Matt Tagliani, head of European and Asian ETF product at Morgan Stanley in London, has challenged the theory of an ETF collapse caused by the lending and short sale of ETFs.

The theory, promulgated by Bogan Associates, LLC in a 15 September white paper entitled “Can an ETF Collapse?” was publicised in a subsequent FT Alphaville blog and then featured as the topic of a CNBC strategy session on Wednesday this week.

Read full article.

Posted on

Article: In another Wall Street misdeed, Morgan Stanley settles oil-trading flap

Article - Media

In another Wall Street misdeed, Morgan Stanley settles oil-trading flap

Kevin G. Hall

McClatchy Newspapers, 29 April 2010

In another black eye for Wall Street, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission late Thursday announced a $14 million fine against Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. for allegedly hiding its complex oil trades.

The settlement, in which Morgan Stanley did not admit or deny the accusations, comes as oil prices have continued their steady upwards march and have some oil analysts again saying that excessive speculation is again pushing up energy prices. One recent estimate put the cost of that to consumers and businesses at $300 billion annually.

Read full article.

Posted on

Article: Wall Street’s Bailout Hustle

Article - Media

Wall Street’s Bailout Hustle

Matt Taibbi

Rolling Stone, 17 February 2010

On January 21st, Lloyd Blankfein left a peculiar voicemail message on the work phones of his employees at Goldman Sachs. Fast becoming America’s pre-eminent Marvel Comics supervillain, the CEO used the call to deploy his secret weapon: a pair of giant, nuclear-powered testicles. In his message, Blankfein addressed his plan to pay out gigantic year-end bonuses amid widespread controversy over Goldman’s role in precipitating the global financial crisis.

Read full article.

Posted on

Article: In Pursuit of the Naked Short by Alexis Stokes

Article - Academic

In Pursuit of the Naked Short

Alexis Stokes, Texas State University

Journal of Law and Business 5/1 (Spring 2009)

This article explores the origins of naked short-selling litigation; considers
the failures of significant naked short-selling lawsuits in federal court;
surveys the obstacles erected collectively by constitutional standing requirements, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, brokerage firms, death spiral financiers, and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation; examines the efficacy of Regulation SHO, SEC rule 10b-21, and new FINRA rules; discusses recent state legislation and state court litigation; and identifies non-litigation options to curb naked short-selling. Ultimately, this article seeks to answer the question: If manipulative naked short-selling is more than a mythological scapegoat for
small cap failure, what remedies are, or should be, available?

PDF (62 Pages): Article In Pursuit of the Naked Short

Posted on

Article: Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose

Article - Media

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose

Mark Pittman, Bob  Ivry, Alison Fitzgerald

Bloomberg cited by Yonkers Tribune

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn’t require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

Read full article.

Posted on

Article: Crisis of Convenience for Roiling SEC

Article - Media

Crisis of Convenience for Roiling SEC

David Patch

InvestigateTheSEC.com via Wayback, 30 October 2008

To say that support for the Securities and Exchange Commission is at an all time low would be an understatement. With Congressional Investigations into the agencies handling of critical investigations and recent reports out of the Office of Inspector General, investors are left guessing as to what exactly the agency is doing to police our markets. Heck, even a presidential candidate has suggested that the SEC Chairman should be fired and it was his party that hired him.

Access archived page.

Posted on

Article: Dick Fuld’s Vendetta Against Short-Sellers—and Goldman Sachs

Article - Media

Dick Fuld’s Vendetta Against Short-Sellers—and Goldman Sachs

Heidi N. Moore

Wall Street Journal, 7 October 2008

Fuld didn’t let up on his hatred for short-sellers–primarily David Einhorn–even after his company filed for bankruptcy last month, and he believed the shorts were part of a cabal driven by Goldman Sachs Group.

In April, Fuld reported back to general counsel Thomas Russo about a dinner with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson that Lehman had a “huge brand with treasury,” which “loved our capital raise” and, in perhaps an oblique reference to short-sellers, that Treasury “want to kill the bad HFnds + heavily regulate the rest.”

Read full article.

Posted on

Article: SEC Gave “Preferential Treatment” to Wall Street CEO

Article - Media

SEC Gave “Preferential Treatment” to Wall Street CEO

Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz

abc News, 6 October 2008

The SEC gave “preferential treatment” to Wall Street executive John Mack during an insider trading investigation three years ago because Mack was about to become CEO of the Morgan Stanley investment banking firm, the SEC’s inspector general concluded in a report obtained by ABC News.

The report recommended disciplinary action against the SEC’s chief of enforcement, Linda Thomson, and said the firing of an SEC lawyer was “connected” to his persistent attempts to take Mack’s testimony. Read the report’s conclusion and recommendations here.

Read full article.

 

Posted on

Article: SEC and FSA Take Actions Against Short Selling

Article - Media

SEC and FSA Take Actions Against Short Selling

Cary J. Meer, Christina E. Anzuoni, Manjinder Cacacie, Kay A. Gordon, Mark D. Perlow

K&L Gates, 19 September 2008

On September 17 and 18, 2008, in a series of emergency measures, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted two new rules, issued two orders (including a temporary ban on short sales in financial securities), amended Regulation SHO and Rule 10b-18, and announced enforcement initiatives aimed at preventing “naked” short selling and compelling disclosure of short positions. In the view of the SEC, but not of all observers, “naked” short selling and other manipulative trading practices have contributed to the recent turmoil in the markets and sudden declines in securities prices, particularly in the financial sector. “Naked” short selling is the practice of selling a security short without having borrowed the security.

Read full article.

Posted on

Paper: The Counterfeiting of Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Paper

The Counterfeiting of Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Where are Our Regulators and Who are They Protecting?

17 September 2008

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are publicly traded Government Sponsored Enterprises (―GSEs‖), a quasi – partnership between the private sector and the government. The shares of the GSEs trading in the public markets have been counterfeited and deliberately manipulated. This is not rocket science; known ownership of the GSEs shares exceeded the number of shares that were available. Counterfeiting shares of the GSEs caused their stock prices to collapse. The regulators turned a blind eye to the takedown, encouraged it or were not effective enough to recognize it and enforce the laws against market manipulation that have existed since the 1930s. The industry and the regulators have little room for a plausible deniability claim that they did not know what was occurring in the trading of the GSEs.

PDF (33 pages): The Counterfeiting of Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Where are Our Regulators and Who are They Protecting?

Posted on

Article: Complaint Over Auction Rate Securities Market Details Brokers’ Greed

Article - Media

Complaint Over Auction Rate Securities Market Details Brokers’ Greed

Courthouse News Service, 5 September 2008

In a federal filing replete with lurid examples of document destruction, inside trading, naked greed, lies and market manipulation, the City of Baltimore joins the long list of plaintiffs demanding treble damages from Citigroup, UBS, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Lehman Bros., Wachovia and other banks that conspired to prop up the auction rate securities market, until it collapsed in a $300 billion rubble heap from which investors are still digging out.

Read full article.

Posted on

Article: Did It Help to Curb Short Sales?

Article - Media

Did It Help to Curb Short Sales?

Floyd Norris

The New York Times, 12 August 2008

A rule that made it harder to short some financial stocks and that may have helped raise prices and reduce the volume of shorting in those stocks expired Tuesday, as the Securities and Exchange Commission considers whether to tighten the rules on all short selling.

It may be a coincidence, but the announcement of the rule on July 15 coincided with the bottom of the bear market for financial stocks, which leaped that day and are now well above where they were. And the final day proved to be a very bad day for those shares.

Read full article.

Posted on

Article: Bringing Down Bear Stearns

Article - Media

Bringing Down Bear Stearns

Bryan Burrough

Vanity Fair, 30 June 2008

On Monday, March 10, the rumor started: Bear Stearns was having liquidity problems. In fact, the maverick investment bank had around $18 billion in cash reserves. But soon the speculation created its own reality, and the race was on to keep Bear’s crisis from ravaging Wall Street. With the blow-by-blow from insiders, Bryan Burrough follows the players—Bear’s stunned executives, trigger-happy reporters at CNBC, a nervous Fed, a shadowy group of short-sellers—in what some believe was the greatest financial scandal in history.

Read full article.

THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?