An e-mail to Chairman Cox…
On September 15, 2008, corkstereg posted the following:
FWIW… here it is… at least I spoke up …
Don’t know what good it will do… and I was just so pissed off, so not sure if my letter was in its best form…. I ranted wrote it off quickly and sent it…
I also cc’ed it to an investigative team for a major news organization too… not holding my breath though…
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To Chairman Cox,
As an individual investor and one very concerned with the economy as well as the concerted efforts to take down weakened financial institutions (due to bad credit handling) by unregulated hedge funds and illegal naked short selling, it is time for the SEC to recognize that regulating the hedge funds and reining in naked short selling as well as reinstating the uptick rule are of utmost urgency.
Why is it acceptable for shares to be “borrowed” without actual acquisition first? Personally I don’t think its right that my shares can be “borrowed” against my wishes, regardless of rules involving brokerage houses in order to have investment accounts. It puts my hard earned money and careful investments at risk by those who are greedy and are allowed to break the rules with impunity and apparently with SEC’s blessings.
The reason I say with SEC’s blessings is that ever since the uptick rule was removed, volatility in the markets has increased and companies have been short selled to the point of failure. In addition, lessons learned from the temporary protection given to financials against short selling did not seem to take hold. Once the temporary ban on short selling of financials was lifted… we saw concerted efforts at take down again. Now the short sellers have gone after LEH, Washinton Mutual and others are on their list…. how many more of these corporations have to fail before you and the SEC leadership FINALLY get it?
The SEC’s job is to PROTECT the investors and the economy. Not illegal or unethical investing practices. Your job as Chairman is to protect the larger well-being of the United States, it’s economy and the investors… including the smaller investors. Otherwise you are going to be perceived as being in the pocket or on the side of those engaged in these very destructive and illegal activities.
Its time to stop out right the naked short selling and to reinstate the uptick rule. Its that simple.
Question is, Do you have the personal courage and integrity to do the right thing?
To be honest, I have doubts about this… let alone that this e-mail will get to you personally without someone deleteing it.
Unfortunately I can’t end this note with a respectful salutation… as I don’t see the SEC or you as Chairman having done anything to deserve respect from me or anyone else who has and is rapidly losing trust in the stock and related markets as a whole. The only good news of this whole mess… is that I am just glad that discussions regarding privatizing Social Security has effectively been killed for a long time to come.
Signed,
A Disgusted Investor
techstock2000 @ September 15, 2008
I think something is going on…..
Yesterday CNBC talked about “who to blame”…..none of that came out.
Then Lazard’s Vice Chairman complained about the uptick rule and naked short selling, they never followed up and totally ignored what he said.
It is clear….despite the bad assets LEH and others had, the repeated bear attack had made this process fast.
Companies like AIG have no time to react anymore. That is part of the problem. Modern Finance (refereed to M&M), states that companies can choose equity or debt equally. So, when debt levels get out of hand, you can issue equity to pay down debt and vise versa. Of course, this is no longer true. People are killing a companies equity because the debt levels are high, taking out the company’s flexibility that modern finance claims it has.
Rich
Thank you….
Please dig this one….it is important to be read by many people.
I dug it. The letter should be sent to every major newspaper in the US. Until recently I was an advocate for allowing Social Security accounts to be personally managed but recent events have made it clear that it would only be a matter of time before the Hedgies would eat it all up.