April 8, 2009
To Whom It May Concern:
Please add the following to the collection of public comments SEC Chairman Schapiro is seeking:
The SEC could start looking out for the interests of private market participants not by manipulating the rules so that stocks can only go up in price, but by delivering some actual transparency, so we can appropriately value the firms we seek to place our money in.
WE NEED TRANSPARENCY, NOT MARKET DISTORTING INTERVENTION.
How about the SEC require financial institutions to disclose the value of level III assets, CDS counterparties, SIV and other “off balance sheet” instruments, in exchange for this rule? I don’t see how defending the indefensible brings confidence to the market. The only conclusion I can draw about the SEC's proposal to impair short selling activity is that the companies themselves have something they need to hide. That doesn’t raise my confidence at all. You’re driving people like me out of the market. I’ll sit in cash instead of putting my trust in a market that is manipulated with government support.
Once again, I am not surprised to see evidence of how a small number of very powerful people are able to manipulate the people and rules in our government to gain personal advantage at the expense of the public good. The SEC has quite a record over the past 8 years of helping the financial oligarchs while disregarding the voice of the taxpaying public. I guess nothing changed with the new administration. This is not change I can believe in; this is selfish cronyism, and it needs to stop.
Regards,
Corey Flerchinger