SEC votes 3-2 for a worthless short-sale curb

The Wall Street Journal tells the tale – “The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-2 Wednesday in favor of a final rule that will curb short selling for individual securities that decline at least 10% in a single day.”

Forgive me if I don’t raise my glass in honor of the SEC. The only parties in the mood to celebrate this pathetic rule change are the very same miscreants who’ve been behind some of the most merciless short-selling raids enabled by a captured regulator (The SEC).

SEC Chairman Mary Shapiro (Getty Images)

Rant Warning: I only hope the objecting 2 Commissioners voted “no” due to the pathetic, watered-down, virtually worthless version of short-selling curbs that were put into effect today. The CEOs of major broker-dealers and investment banks, that were under short-sellers’ siege in Sept 2008, raced into the SEC’s offices* with politicians tow …. They demanded a meeting with then SEC Chairman Cox and screamed “do something! Stop this gratuitous pound-down short selling!” Finally the Brits (who had balls) temporarily banned short-selling on financials and the SEC and other global market authorities followed the Brits’ lead. The banks and BDs soon thereafter got their bailouts (and seven-figure exec bonuses), and the merciless short-selling abated …. But these f***ing financial firms were too addicted to the massive commission revenues and margin fees generated by the  f***ing scumbag hedge funds and institutional short-sellers … so they backed-off on their insistence that the SEC do anything substantive to stop the abusive (in some cases criminal) short-selling and fails-to-deliver (FTDs).

The SEC has totally failed on their mission statement … to facilitate free/fair markets and to protect real actual “investors” …. That’s “investors” not whip-saw short selling hedge funds and not high-speed, fundamentals be damned, program trading quants.

*Secret Sept 2008 Meeting with SEC : “Citing un-named sources, the SEC is this afternoon holding a meeting to ‘determine if they need to take further steps to curtail what both Mac and [Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd] Blankfein characterize as improper short selling that is really causing damage to the share price of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.’ Blankfein also spoke with Cox to complain of short selling of their stock, as did New York senators Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton.” > link

Photo above right – L to R – Dodd, Schumer, Bernanke and Cox

Photo below – L to R – Blankfein, Diamond, and Mack

L to R Blankfein, Diamond, Mack

Goldman Sachs bonuses

Doonesbury – by Gary Trudeau