April 20, 2009
Another example of how government agencies and the politicians fail to see the true issue
To put restrictions on short selling or how an individual is allowed to trade fails to address the bigger picture.
It is the inability to monitor financial companies, allowing them to leverage capital at ratios greater than 25:1 that got us in this mess. It is the inability to see how the consolidation of banks and investment companies led to too big to fail. It is the lack of oversight or 'look the other way as I lobbyist line my pocket' mentality that got us into this mess.
If I remember correctly, wasn't there an individual who for years told the SEC about Bernie Madoff? What did the SEC do? Nothing as usual until things got out of hand.
Instead of going at the very heart of the problem the SEC proposes restrictions on investors to prevent short selling or put restriction on the degree to which it can be done.
And now, you want to hurt investors who 'speculate'. The very idea of capitalism buyers and sellers. Why do you want to hurt sellers when they were the smart ones who saw this coming? Hmmto control greed? How about panic? It is best if you address the problem and not a manifestation of the symptom.
If it was up to me, it would be the SEC that would be on the hot set as well, along with the financial industry.
I heard there may be some smart people in the SEC. If you come across one, please make sure s/he reads this email.