Tag: SEC

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Article: Bringing Down Bear Stearns

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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.

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Testimony: Robert Shapiro’s Comments on Proposed Naked Short Selling Anti-Fraud Rule, 10b-21

Testimony

File No. S7-08-08: Comments on Proposed Naked Short Selling Anti-Fraud Rule, 10b-21

Dr. Robert J. Shapiro

19 May 2008

I am Dr. Robert J. Shapiro, the chairman of Sonecon, LLC, an economic analysis and advisory firm in Washington, D.C. I am also currently a Senior Fellow of the Georgetown University School of Business, Director of the NDN Project on Globalization and a Fellow of the Progressive Policy Institute. From 1998 to 2001, I was the U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs. Prior to that, I was the Vice President and co-founder of the Progressive Policy Institute, Vice President of the Progressive Foundation, and Legislative Director and Economic Counsel for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. I have advised numerous public officials, including President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Vice President Al Gore, and Senators Joseph Lieberman, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Evan Bayh, as well as many large U.S. and foreign corporations and financial institutions. I hold a Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard University, as well as a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an A.B. from the University of Chicago. I also have been a fellow of Harvard University, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the Brookings Institution, and I have conducted extensive research and analysis involving U.S. financial markets.

PDF (6 pages): File No. S7-08-08: Comments on Proposed Naked Short Selling Anti-Fraud Rule, 10b-21

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Article: The Secret Bailout of J. P. Morgan: How Insider Trading Looted Bear Stearns and the American Taxpayer

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The Secret Bailout of J. P. Morgan: How Insider Trading Looted Bear Stearns and the American Taxpayer

Ellen Brown

Global Research, 14 May 2008

The mother of all insider trades was pulled off in 1815, when London financier Nathan Rothschild led British investors to believe that the Duke of Wellington had lost to Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. In a matter of hours, British government bond prices plummeted. Rothschild, who had advance information, then swiftly bought up the entire market in government bonds, acquiring a dominant holding in England’s debt for pennies on the pound. Over the course of the nineteenth century, N. M. Rothschild would become the biggest bank in the world, and the five brothers would come to control most of the foreign-loan business of Europe. “Let me issue and control a nation’s money,” Rothschild boasted in 1838, “and I care not who writes its laws.”

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Article: The ‘Phantom Shares’ Menace

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The ‘Phantom Shares’ Menace

John W. Welborn

Securities & Exchange,  24 April 2008

In 1985, the National Association of Securities Dealers (nasd) commissioned Irving M. Pollack, a securities law expert and former Securities and Exchange commissioner, to conduct a comprehensive review of short selling in nasdaq securities. The nasd sought to determine what, if any, additional short selling regulation was needed for the nasdaq market. The result was the now-famous “Pollack Study,” which described the short selling landscape of the day and made important recommendations regarding the disclosure, reporting, and settlement of short sales.

PDF (10 pages): The ‘Phantom Shares’ Menace

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Article: The Economics of Naked Short Selling — The Koch Brothers Approve!

Paper

The Economics of Naked Short Selling

Christopher Culp and J. B. Heaton

Despite the cries of alarm, we believe that naked short selling
is unlikely to have significant detrimental effects on capital markets.
In this article, we will first examine the relevant economics
and regulation, and then argue that, from an economic perspective,
naked shorting is little different from traditional shorting.

PDF (6 Pages): Paper Economics of Naked Short Selling

Continue reading “Article: The Economics of Naked Short Selling — The Koch Brothers Approve!”

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Article: SEC proposes tougher “naked” short selling rules

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SEC proposes tougher “naked” short selling rules

Rachelle Younglai, Richard Chang

Reuters, 4 March 2008

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday proposed tougher rules to curb so-called “naked” short-selling abuses and prevent market price manipulation.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said regulation SHO, an existing rule partly aimed at short selling abuses, “needs teeth.”

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Article: Phantom shares

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Phantom shares

Jonathan E. Johnson III

The Washington Times, 21 November 2007

In the late 1800s, American financier Daniel Drew refined the art of selling counterfeit shares. Drew’s biographer wrote, “There is no limit to the amount of blank shares a printing press can turn out. White paper is cheap… printer’s ink is also cheap.” Today, it is possible to counterfeit shares electronically — and it happens with such frightening regularity and impunity that Drew would be proud.

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Testimony: Statement of Robert J. Shapiro The Economic Costs of Tolerating Equity “Failures to Deliver”

Testimony

Statement of Robert J. Shapiro: The Economic Costs of Tolerating Equity “Failures to Deliver”

Robert Shapiro

11 September 2007

I am Robert J. Shapiro. I am chairman of Sonecon, an economic advisory firm in Washington, D.C., and former U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs under President Clinton. I am also a Senior Policy Fellow at the Georgetown University Center for Business and Public Policy and a Senior Fellow of the Progressive Policy Institute. I have served previously as a fellow of Harvard University, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the Brookings Institution.

PDF (3 pages): Statement of Robert J. Shapiro: The Economic Costs of Tolerating Equity “Failures to Deliver”

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Article: SEC moves to close loopholes in short-selling rule

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SEC moves to close loopholes in short-selling rule

James Langton

Investment Executive, 14 June 2007

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has voted to take additional steps that it believes will close loopholes in its short-selling rule, Regulation SHO, further reducing persistent failures to deliver stock within the standard settlement period.

The SEC voted to adopt final amendments to its rules that, it says, will further reduce fails to deliver in certain equity securities. Regulation SHO, which became fully effective in January 2005, provides a regulatory framework governing short sales of securities.

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Article: SEC seen shy on naked shorting

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SEC seen shy on naked shorting

Bloomberg, 23 April 2007

Critics of short-selling practices they deem abusive are up in arms over what they say is continued inaction by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
They say that the SEC delayed long-overdue reforms last month when it asked for more comments on proposals to tighten up exemptions to a rule intended to curb illegal “naked” short selling.

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Article: Goldman to pay $2M to settle SEC case

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Goldman to pay $2M to settle SEC case

Associated Press, 14 March 2007

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s clearing unit has agreed to pay $2 million in civil penalties to settle allegations that it allowed customers to illegally profit by selling securities short just before public offerings of stock, regulators said.

It marks the first settlement of a Securities and Exchange Commission and NYSE Regulation Inc. case alleging that a prime brokerage firm played a role in a type of abusive short-selling practice that has prompted some companies to launch a high-profile campaign against “naked” short selling. That involves selling borrowed shares without having first borrowed the shares.

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Article: Goldman Snared In Naked Shorting Probe

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Goldman Snared In Naked Shorting Probe

Liz Moyer

Forbes, 14 March 2007

One of Wall Street’s biggest prime brokers has been taken to task by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Big Board for not catching on to its customers’ illegal trading activities.

Goldman Sach’s clearing and execution division is paying $2 million to settle accusations it relied too heavily on what its customers told it without investigating trading activity that showed signs of something being amiss.

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Article: Bloomberg TV Examines ‘Phantom Shares’ in Special Report Tonight

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Bloomberg TV Examines ‘Phantom Shares’ in Special Report Tonight

Bloomberg , 13 March 2007

NEW YORK, March 13 /PRNewswire/ — Tonight BLOOMBERG TELEVISION(R) examines a little-known stock trading practice that can be affecting your portfolio and your company. The special report, titled “Phantom Shares,” explores the problem of “naked shorting” in the stock market. The half-hour BLOOMBERG TELEVISION program is scheduled to air on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 at 7:00, 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. ET.

Every day, millions of shares of stock are sold but can’t be delivered because of an obscure trading practice called “naked short selling.” In a normal short sale, an investor borrows shares and sells them, making a profit if the price falls by replacing the borrowed shares with cheaper ones. In a naked short sale, an investor doesn’t borrow the shares, but sells them anyway. In extreme cases, the investor sells “Phantom Shares,” shares that don’t exist. The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION report, anchored by Mike Schneider, explains this practice, how it’s executed and what the Securities and Exchange Commission is doing in an effort to control it. Continue reading “Article: Bloomberg TV Examines ‘Phantom Shares’ in Special Report Tonight”

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