October 18, 2008
Institutional Investment Managers are no different than counterfeiters when they choose to naked short sell unless their position is disclosed to the public. Naked short selling is counterfieting. It is selling an illusion without ownership. The leveraging of that illusion is done without disclosure to the investor. It puts the common investor at higher risk than any home owner because there is 0 equity in the investment.
Naked short selling is stealing from the investor and is used as a weapon to move the markets by diluting the value of a stock to the point that the company is vulnerable to "naked take overs" because they have no "real" equity from stock sales.
You know all this. The sub prime mortgage fiasco is a drop in the bucket compared to the criminal application of naked short selling since 2000. Electornic stock and monitary transfers have allowed those controlling this illusion to control the market and predictably the rise and fall of the dow.
Disclosure by Investment Managers should be the least of the requirements the SEC should enforce. Endorsing the counterfeiting of stocks is the same as endorsing the counterfeiting of money...it is worse in that the public has never known that their investment is complicit with the failure of the market and the loss of that investment in that market.
Full disclosure of this issue, in common, understandable terms, is on the way. You might want to be part of the body educating the public reporting and prosecuting criminal activity rather than being attached with those complicit with stealing and counterfeiting the savings of Union retirements, 401ks, etc. The reputation of the SEC and Investment Managers is barely salvagable at this point. Without public confidence and trust neither body will survive.