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Investing 101 - Nov 27, 2005 - Printable Version
- Stockgate: "Can We Talk?"
by Mark Faulk
The North American Securities Administrators Association, Inc is hosting a "forum to explore possible market manipulation through naked short selling activity" on Wednesday, November 30. The “NASAA Listens” Forum is scheduled for November 30 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Paris Ballroom of the Sofitel Lafayette Square Hotel, 806 15th Street NW, in Washington, D.C. The Forum is free and open to the public on a first come, first serve basis. To reserve a seat, please contact Lonnie Martin, at 202-737-0900 or lm@nasaa.org, by November 28. While The Faulking Truth commends the NASAA for taking steps to address the issue of naked short selling, we are taking a wait and see approach before donning our party dresses and dancing in the streets in celebration. Let's be honest about this, there has been a lot of talk about this scandal over the past year and a half, and after the cancellation of the planned Senate Banking Subcommittee hearing by Chairman Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), the Dateline "expose'" fiasco, the implementation of SEC rules that have done nothing more than point out just how pervasive the problem really is, and the major media's general botching of the entire story, we've grown just a bit cynical about another afternoon of talking about doing something about it.
We first reported that several states were opening investigations into the massive fraud that has crippled the stock market over a year ago, and with DTCC trade settlement failures maintained at over $6 billion per day, every day that no real action is taken is one day too many, every week that passes without major reform in the market is another week of the wealthy robbing the middle class, every month that is spent, as Senator Shelby's aide Jonathon Grassio put it, "monitoring the situation," is another month where our own government is complicit in the defrauding of it's own citizens.
This is our national shame.
Year after year after year, federal regulatory agencies have ignored the selling of counterfeit stock, and year after year after year, Congress has held the bag for the crooks who are robbing our country blind. We can only hope that the state regulators can succeed where our federal government has failed, and that investors, at long last, can finally invest their hard earned money with confidence in a fair and honest stock market. This Wednesday's forum is a huge step in the right direction, and we can only implore the NASAA to follow through swiftly and with true conviction.
The list of panelists is impressive, and hopefully, they will adequately convey the urgency that is needed to address the rampant corruption that threatens the very foundation of our financial system. Here is a list of the speakers at next Wednesday's forum, to be moderated by Connecticut Securities Director Ralph A. Lambiase:
JAMES J. ANGEL, Associate Professor of Finance at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.
JAMES BRIGAGLIANO, Assistant Director, Division of Market Regulation, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
PETER J. CHEPUCAVAGE, General Counsel of Plexus Consulting Group, LLC in Washington, D.C.
JOHN FINNERTY, Professor of Finance at Fordham University Graduate School of Business Administration and a Principal with Analysis Group, Inc.
ANAND RAMTAHAL, Vice President, Division of Member Firm Regulation, New York Stock Exchange.
ROBERT SHAPIRO, co-founder and chairman of Sonecon, LLC, and former U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs.
SUSANNE TRIMBATH, Chief Executive Manager of STP Advisory Services and Senior Research Economist.
NASD, a representative of the NASD has been invited.
There is much to be done. We have to not only put a halt to stock counterfeiting, and do it now, we also need to punish those who have defrauded America for decades, instead of protecting them, as the SEC has chosen to do by giving the perpetrators a free pass and "grandfathering" in all prior fraud. There can be no "take the money and run" approach to reform, there can be no more "pilot programs," there can be no more "monitoring the situation," there can be no more talk without action.
The time for reform is now, the only question is who has the integrity and the courage to stop talking and take real action to protect all of America, and not just the chosen few.....
....and that's the Faulking Truth.
(Editor's note: I will be attending the NASAA Forum on Naked Short Selling in Washington, DC this coming Wednesday, and will follow up with a report on progress made there. Keep your fingers crossed. And if you plan on attending the forum, email me...we'll do lunch.)
For more information about the NASAA go to:
http://www.nasaa.org/home/
To learn more about the NASAA Forum on Naked Short Selling to be held on Wednesday, November 30, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Eastern time, go to:
http://www.nasaa.org/NASAA_Newsroom/Current_NASAA_Headlines/3923.cfm
To register for the live webcast of Wednesday's forum, go to:
http://www.videonewswire.com/event.asp?id=31468
Senator Richard Shelby's phone number in Washington is (202) 224-5744, and his email address is senator@shelby.senate.gov If you haven't called him lately, now is the time to do it. Ask him what he's doing to protect America.
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