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TechnoratiAre Our Markets Being Manipulated by 'Rogues' or Firms?
There’s New Evidence to Suggest That Crime in the Financial Markets Is Rife
Everyone has heard of the Wikipedia but not everyone knows about the Investopedia, a Forbes website, that monitors finance for market players. One of the issues it is concerned about is market manipulation, actions by rogue and not so rogue players who, working alone or together, unduly influence the way our supposed "free" markets function.
It is a fascinating source of information for the uninitiated who hear the daily reports on the ups and downs of the Dow and believe that somehow it is all part of the natural order of the universe.
It isn't.
Thanks to an even more informative web site, Gamingthemarket.com, we learn that in fact markets are subject to, prone to, and characterized by all sorts of manipulative practices. Here's one you may not have heard of.
"Ghosting: An illegal practice whereby two or more market makers collectively attempt to influence and change the price of a stock. Ghosting is used by corrupt companies to affect stock prices so they can profit from the price movement.
This practice is illegal because market makers are required by law to act in competition with each other. It is known as 'ghosting' because, like a spectral image or a ghost, this collusion among market makers is difficult to detect. In developed markets, the consequences of ghosting can be severe." -Investopedia
It looks like we have gone from the age of the trustbuster to the era of the ghost buster as fiction once again turns into "faction."
Last week, the price of oil mysteriously shot up. There were reports of yet another "rogue" trader. The New York Times later reported:
"Reacting to recent swings in oil prices, federal regulators said they were considering limits on 'speculative' traders in markets for oil and other energy products." Of course, the big banks and Wall Street firms are expected to zealously oppose more oversight.
Some things don't change. Anyone remember Nicholas Leeson, a one-man engine of speculation who lost over a billion dollars and brought down his own bank before going to jail? He later gloated on his website: "How could one trader bring down the banking empire that had funded the Napoleonic Wars?"
On July 4th, Bloomberg News reported:
"Sergey Aleynikov, an ex-Goldman Sachs computer programmer, was arrested July 3 after arriving at Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, U.S. officials said. Aleynikov, 39, who has dual American and Russian citizenship, is charged in a criminal complaint with stealing the trading software. At a court appearance July 4 in Manhattan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Facciponti told a federal judge that Aleynikov's alleged theft poses a risk to U.S. markets. Aleynikov transferred the code, which is worth millions of dollars, to a computer server in Germany, and others may have had access to it, Facciponti said, adding that New York-based Goldman Sachs may be harmed if the software is disseminated."
The next sentence is particularly eye-opening:
"The bank has raised the possibility that there is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways," Facciponti said.
J.S. Kim who runs an independent investment research and wealth consultancy firm commented on the financial site, Seeking Alpha:
"It's curious to note that Goldman Sachs has admitted that it has developed trading software that could be used to, in their own words, 'manipulate markets in unfair ways,' yet nobody in the mainstream media has questioned whether Goldman Sachs was / and is using its proprietary trading platform to manipulate markets in unfair ways. Only extremely naive investors with zero understanding of how global stock markets operate would deny that there has been continual and excessive intervention into US stock markets to prop them up over the past several months."
I spoke with Christian Angelich, the founder or GamingtheMarket.com, a former airline pilot turned trader, who told me that in recent years efforts to manipulate markets have become pervasive and, yet, are mostly illegal.
He too cited Goldman when I asked how it often works.
Without prodding, he came up with one possible scenario involving a firm like Goldman Sachs that had millions of shares of Intel it wanted to offload. So they issue a report predicting it will sell for $50 a share. As a major player at the New York exchange where they do 1 out of every ten shares, and have become even more powerful now that competitors like Bear, Lehman and others are out of business, their recommendations are given lots of weight even though in this case they really want to just dump the shares.
"None of this is new," he told me, "it's been going on for years. Even the founding Fathers warned about it, but is more egregious today in part because of all the technology these firms have." He says it is illegal and has been winked at, citing one example: former Senator Phil Gramm attaching a plan to kill the Glass-Steagall act as an amendment to a bill that then sailed through the Congress while his wife was on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
"We will only have a real bottom," he believes, when the masses are out in the streets like they are in parts of Europe. "For change, pressure from below is needed."
Sometimes unexpected events can take over markets too, as Michael Jackson's untimely demise's meteoric impact on the music market shows. His sales went from nowhere to everywhere confirming one jaded pundit's cynical comment that "he was more valuable dead than alive."
In making a new film on the financial crisis as a crime story, I spoke with Moe Saceriby, a former lawyer and VP of Standard and Poors who went on to become a UN Ambassador. I knew him as a credible analyst of current affairs, an experienced professional. We spoke on Wall Street.
He told me:
"I think we had a transition from what truly was a free-market system to something now that is out of control and probably what I would define as a predatory system where we are not so much dealing anymore about the notion of fair prices, and the notion of markets that -- that work transparently an open late but in fact frequently markets that are manipulated for the end of maybe a few out there -- a few investors, mega-investors. It's even -- even that's very difficult to tell. "
This was new to me -- the whole system being described as predatory, which smacks of criminal.
He went on:
"And these market movements may not be necessarily reflective of the underlying value of that real asset whether it be a commodity or whether it be in equity. What I mean by that is frequently you see prices wildly fluctuating. As an example: how could oil be at $147 in July of 2008 and all of a sudden fall to below $40 a barrel at the end of that same year? We all knew that in fact the whole economic system was in trouble over a year ago. But the price of oil kept rising sharply. The price of foods kept rising sharply."
Question: "Manipulated?"
Answer: "I think it was manipulated. There is a lot of debate whether it's about speculation or manipulation but there is an old expression among traders which is ‘the trend is your friend.' What that means is that in fact a few people can use significant resources, financial resources, freely as a weapon."
Umm, weapons on Wall Street? Already credit default swaps have been compared to financial hydrogen bombs as financial terms merge with military language. Does anyone doubt that these Wall Street manipulations have become form of warfare and that, until now, the wrong side has been ahead.
Surely, all this demands a serious investigation and serious regulation. Will it happen?
42 Comments so far
Show All"For change, pressure from below is needed."
FREE AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY
So, apologies to all, clearly I'm a noob here: Can anyone explain for me the difference between rogues and firms?
Moe Saceriby asks "How could oil be at $147 in July of 2008 and all of a sudden fall to below $40 a barrel by the end of that same year? We all knew that in fact the whole economic system was in trouble over a year ago. But the price of oil kept rising sharply."
Answer: Lots of shrewd, sophisticated, big money oil futures commodity speculators looked at George Bush's fiasco in Iraq, and the steady propaganda drum beat for the US and/or Israel to attack Iran before Bush's second term ran out, and steadily bid up the price of a barrel of petroleum in anticipation that the dislocation accompanying expanded war in the Persian Gulf would cause the price to absolutely skyrocket. But in July, 2008, it became fairly clear that the Bushies were not going to be able to muster the domestic political muscle to attack Iran. So the oil futures speculators started selling, prices peaked at $147, the savvy investors pocketed their gains from this per barrel figure artificially inflated by fears of a wider Mideast war, and laughed all the way to the bank.
Yes, short term trading manipulations by big Wall Street players with insider information are a huge, systemic problem bordering on fraud in terms of market volatility.
But the big retail gouging of consumers at the pump in the summer of 2008 (passed on in the price of food and other commodities) had a lot more to do with war profiteering, and well grounded fears of more warfare yet to come, than the roller coaster price fluctuations had to do with some Wall Street insider's day trading scam.
Bill from Saginaw
It's amazing how everyone knows there's market manipulation on a DAILY basis, and almost everyone seems powerless to do anything about it. Even calls for the simplest, common sense rules such as restoring the uptick rule haven't had any effect. That, and the publicizing of short positions by institutional traders. I just cannot imagine it's so difficult to make public the short positions of institutions on a daily basis. It's a criminal system - and everyone plays along.
Thank you to Danny Schechter for his continued work on exposing financial crime. Many people are asking a very important question. How do you enforce regulation designed to prevent corruption within a corrupt system? Regulation which is now guarded by a system of corrupted agents.
Consider how wounded and illiquid the market is today. The collapse has created a new banking monopoly. There are fewer predators in the lagoon competing with each other, which used to be good for you and me. Today, program trading (computers shooting at other computers) is now 50% of NYSE volume. So instead of your pension having a chance to organically grow, your retirement is being shot down for short-term profits by Goldman Sachs and a few other big banks.
Let's also become aware of what is really going on when it comes time to raise taxes on the public. A five-story office building called Ugland House, in the Cayman Islands, is the official address for 18,857 corporations. About half these companies have billing addresses in the U.S. and pay little to no tax. The Caymans Islands provides near-total financial secrecy for companies, banks and accounts.
"They are shortchanging our country even as they profit from it," says Senator Byron Dorgan.
There are many stories about this at GamingtheMarket.com which peel back the mask of the system.
NOT surprising at all, really. It's been long enough known that the stock market is full of "gamers", who operate unethically, or, for another way of putting it, use racket ethics.
But given how corrupt the whole system is in terms of the Federal Reserve being privately owned by powerful bankers, who employ the wholly unethical, or racket ethic of fractional money creation, and ... etcetera, we shouldn't be surprised about how the stock market is run or often run, manipulated in racket terms, either.
And I've recommended this documentary film a few or several times over the past week in posts at CD, but will do so again. It's "The Money Masters", for which the official website is www.themoneymasters.com, while there are copies of the film at Google and Youtube for free viewing; a rather very important, insightful, revealing or exposing, ... documentary of historical content that's not to be missed. Everyone should make sure to carefully view and listen to this documentary.
Fact: Program trading from large wall street firms encompasses more than 50% of market daily volume.
Fact: Up until LAST WEEK (not a typo) all these large firms (including Goldman Sachs) were required to report their program trading on a weekly basis. They are NO LONGER REQUIRED by the NY mercantile exchance and the SEC to do so.
Do you know what that means?
Fact: Goldman Sachs runs more than 80% of all program trading.
Are the markets manipulated?
Does a wild bear poop in the woods?
It's clear that the only legitimate market is a local market and the only legitimate economy is a real economy. In other words, people who know/trust each other are trading only real products/services, with access to the basics necessities protected as rights. The world is moving toward this ideal, indicating imminent collapse of the USA's ideological/institutional legacy and influence. Fewer people are "looking west", fewer learning english, fewer enrolling in USan universities, fewer emulating USan business models.
A market that is rigged can never be "free" to begin with. In a regulated capitalist system, the rigged markets we've been putting up with decades would not be permitted. Furthermore, government would not even consider bailing them out. If they fail, then let them fail. Unfortunately, these bailouts to Wall $treet give them more time to have fun toying around with the markets against our economic stability. Even my conservative parents and a lot of their conservative friends can see this clearly. Washington and Wall $treet sure knows how to stay totally divorced from reality. Main Street, please wake up and unite !
I totally agree. we must unite and remove any money we have from the big banks, money systems like mutual funds, stocks and bonds. all of it. create new funds. or just stash it.
Goldman has been robbing us for years. let's make a decision:
NOT TO BE VICTIMS< pull out of the game. they desperately need the Boomers and post boomers for their game. PICK UP YOUR $ EVERYONE and leave the table.
I agree and have been doing it for many years. Jennifer suggests we put our money in credit unions and make sure the credit unions DON'T invest in the stock market; just muni bonds or treasuries. I think that's the way to go.
I have long suspected that 'the market' is a convenient myth that serves to conceal the identities of various actors within it. Asked Who did something, they can just say the market did it.
I don't begin to understand the complexities of finance, but it's nice to have some confirmation that my suspicions may have justified all along. What would it take to get to the bottom of all this as a basis for forging some kind of more honest and rational arrangements?
To me the greatest thing about the stock market is that everyone is free to pretend that corruption and 'rigging' no longer occur.
It's fairly useless to go against ruling monopolies. It's more effective to go after their owners money. But since them with the gold makes the rules, it only works direct democratically.
The theoretical "free" market has never existed in reality, nor could it. As long as private profits are the driving force there will always be incentive for self-interested folks to "game" the system. Intervention and regulation will inevitably become necessary, and in the longer view, that effort will never prove to be more than a tail-chasing cyclical phenomena.
There is inescapable irony when trying to rationalize the innate greed of private profits as capable of creating a sustainable equity for the community at large. And quite honestly, there can never be reason to justify private profits that doesn't inherently depend upon the premise of individual self-aggrandizement at its core.
The "free" market theory is an inherently flawed concept from the get go, and past and future history can never prove otherwise for more than a short interim period of time. Only when it is realized how profits are actually the fruit of the marketplace as a whole, rather than the fruits of individual enterprises, will the greater community be able to create long term sustainable equity for all its citizens. Some folks understand this as "giving back" but most are blind.
Well said.
Thank you.
I suspected stocks were being manipulated during the run up of the dot.com bubble. I kept seeing companies that were new startups that hadn't really sold anything and their stocks were rising ridiculously. So from that time on I kept my money in very safe lower yield funds. My returns were not as good a some peoples were, but when the market crashed I didn't loose a dime.
Next I watched the run up in the housing market with pundits saying that house values would continue their meteoric price rises indefinitely. Fortunately we didn't buy into that one either. More by luck than anything we sold our house in CT pretty much at the top of the market then moved to NC and got a great deal on a house as the prices crashed.
I just amazes me that so many people cant look at the world in a critical way and not get swept up in all the financial nonsense.
Fiction, becomes Faction? I love that..
Last night on Mad Money, Jim Cramer explicity stated that oil pricing was being "manipulated" and as a former trader he new this to be true. Remember how he was crucified by Jon Stewart for not using his show to shine light on these unfair practices? Well now he has put up his hand and stated unequivocally that this is unfair manipulation what do we do?
Recenlty, Matt Taibbi has written about the Golmanites manipulating the market. What do we do about it?
Last weekend, we learn that software that could be used to manipulate markets was stolen from one of these banks. What do we do?
The cost to Americans because of the manipulation of oil is the possible failure of the stimulus plan. A $30 per barrel increase in the price oil, based on a reported consumption of 20 million barrels per day mean that we have handed over $70 billion from the Federal Stimulus directly to the Oil Oligarchs and Wall Street Banksters. That is more of our taxpayer money going toward their fat bonuses. What do we do?
I say we start a class action lawsuit against these guys and hire a lawyer who has inside knowledge of how the Exchanges work and demand that the Peoples rights come first. I suggest we hire Eliot Spitzer to work with his friend Cramer to expose these criminals and bring some sanity back to our financial system.
Technically, Kramer could be right about the price manipulation of oil though he can be loud and wacky and often wrong. In any case, he needs to face the long term fact that Peak Oil is heading our way and is here to stay for good. Not even all that surplus oil in Iraq or wherever else on this planet will stop Peak Oil from pouring in.
Cramer? No way! The man is a crook and a thug. He uses CNBC to manipulate stocks. But don't take my word for it. The Daily Kos ran an excellent article on Cramer's hooliganism. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/3/5/16720/74815/703/705113 You can cut and paste the link.
small excerpt from article: "This is Cramer's big secret. He figured out early that the way to make money betting on stocks was to rig the game - control the news and you control a stock's value. Now he has his own TV show." TV show? The miscreant belongs behind bars (WT).
If you haven't already, see www.deepcapture.com.
There is an ongoing series of stories related to the saga of Dendreon Corporation, makers of Provenge (prostate cancer treatment). Jim Cramer is specifically implicated in this story.
Very interesting reading.
Much obliged, thanks.
Market manipulation has been part and parcel of stock exchanges since the first one was founded in 1602 in Amsterdam (though the first commodities market was in medieval Bruges). Until or unless those whom manipulate these markets and the social harm they cause are treated in the same way as common criminals, with long sentences in harsh jails instead of short terms in country club prisons, we will not begin to address this glaring problem.
The OBAMA "leadership" is a FRAUD. Representing the SYSTEM that Spawned it -- also a FRAUD.
Check out the Plunge Protection Team. They have been hard at for some time I believe. The stock market is indeed a rigged game.
Google Plunge Protection Team.
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
I hope that every recalls those "experts" who, when oil was at that highest point, proclaimed that speculation was not responsible. They couldn't say what was causing the increase but they were absolutely certain that speculation (in which they all engaged) was not to blame.
In today's world of finance, speculators and manipulators are joined at the hip.
The easiest way to manipulate the market is by controlling information. Having the media under corporate control makes the infomraiton easy to control.
q
I recall a debate I entered into with an self proclaimed "expert" on Oil prices (And a loyal Bush Supporter) wherein I laid out the case for market speculation and manipulation for being behind the high price of oil.
This including the NUMBERS wherein I demonstrated clearly that the oil being produced per year was still several million barrels over the amount consumed using the Industries own statistics.
I then pointed to link after link showing how Oil Companies and Oil producing countries were SLOWING or capping production in order to help drive up prices.
Then the evidence of the "Bubble" being created in Commodities as the very money that propped up the Tech Industry and Real Estate fled those areas to seek beter returns.
She simply ignored the facts, repeating over and over again "It simple supply and demand and a relflection of how a free market works"
There are two types of "experts" when it comes to these matters. One group KNOW the truth but will blatantly lie because it means more money in their pockets or that of their friends.
The others are ideologues. They have the blinders on. The Free market is like GOD to them and can never be questioned. They worship at its altar and just as any who question the bibles inconsistencies are dismissed as the Voice of Satan or Unbelievers by fundamendalists, these belivers in the Free Market dismiss any that question ITS workings and truth as "Commies" and haters of "freedom and liberty".
I agree, we need the masses in the streets, day after day, after day, until our elected officials, along with the current administration, decide that they have to listen to us!
I have written letters to all of my elected officials, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton (who was our senator), Kirstin Gillibrand, who was appointed by the governor to replace Clinton, and Charles Rangel. I have written every kind of letter possible -- packed with facts, from the heart, letters asking questions, etc. I never receive replies -- or, if I do, their replies do not address any of the issues I brought to their attention.
Over the past few months, I have attended three protests/rallies on Wall Street, none of which have been very big. Where are the people? I live in NYC where there are 8 million people.
I, too, appreciate all of Mr. Schechter's work!
the masses? that kind of response from americans is long dead ...if it was REALLY alive.
americans are incapable of it. they are basically like Zombies -- walking to work and laughing and tearing their hair and beating their breasts - largely in an imitation of "life" - as
defined for them by their corporate masters.
americans are showing they are more LIKE those Aliens in INDEPENDENCE DAY movie -
the like to "move on" after the last rapacious orgy and leaving it a desert - devoid of life - including their own....to the NEXT "green pastures" to practice the SAME thing all over again - all in pursuit of supposed "liberty, happiness and the american way of life".
americans are NOT EQUIPPED to do such things as a society because they as a society - this fraudulence as the source and foundation of their "dreams and hopes" to which they hang at the expense of all else - tolerating the "necessary sacrifices" along the way - which REALLY means the SORROWS produced by their own empire and quest for "wealth" and "success" and SECURING THAT supposed quest
IS THE VERY NATURE of BEING americans . or at least that is what it has become.
so HOW ON EARTH can americans actually become something OTHER than they are?
it takes Iranians bullets and bloodshed -- and they don't stop telling their government what they expect of it...the Chinese Government - for all its power - IS frightened of the people and hastens to try to satisfy all of them if it is to preserve itself....the argentinians were willing to DESTROY their own economy RATHER than to remain under the BOOTS of the World Bank and US led usurers - and rebuild again...
americans? HAH!! they don't have such COURAGE...unless it is behind army fatigues and the latest weapons and incarceration
techniques en masse -- against some weaker adversary or "target".
against their OWN MASTERS?
FORGET IT.
for all the big talk about "american courage" americans as a whole - have NO BALLS whatsoever.
When you consider the gigantic bailout sum paid to failing banks and the rescue attempt for GM, the answer to your question is simple. In corporatist capitalism the markets are manipulated by the collusion of government and multinationals. Just as President Bush tried to frighten me to give up some of my civil rights so have his and the current administration tried to frighten me into believing that the world would come to an end if these big multinationals were allowed to fail. Contemporary capitalism is anchored on induced fear.
Oh come on, why the surprise? The US Government MANIPULATES the market with its Plunge protection team.
See executive order 12631 signed by one Ronald Reagan.
While I have no doubt that Goldman is skimming from the top of the pot I suspect that there are even bigger players in the mix.
We know the Fed is actively influencing the stock markets with their Plunge Protection Team and you can bet that there are also national players like China and Middle Eastern nations like Saudi Arabia, U.A.E. Kuwait etc, which have their finger on the scales, so to speak.
The Chinese and governments in the Middle East have huge stores of dollars and they do not want to see the American economy collapse least the value of these dollars would be eaten up by inflation as the Fed zooms the money supply into the stratosphere to keep the economic engine chugging along even as whole segments of the economy are crashing (think building construction, automobile manufacturing, consumer spending, the Middle Class etc.)
The bind will hit when these players quit manipulating the market and the Dow Jones Ponzi Scheme topples like Bernie Madoff’s Stairway to Financial Heaven.
as the Asiatimeswriter Henry CK Liu writes in long articles - tracing the histories of institutions, events, mOnetarism, financial structure, capitalism, banks...etc..:
as a response to the habitual American "paranoia" and accusations AGAINST other countries , particularly those big enough to threaten the USA , as "currency manipulators":
he titles a very exhaustive article :
"USA : WORLD's MAIN CURRENCY MANIPULATOR"
and "THE USA ...A PROTECTIONIST NATION PRETENDING to be free-market"...
this just goes to show that the ENTIRE edifice of US capitalism
IS a big FRAUD.
that's just exactly what it is - A FRAUD. from the Treaties with native indians. to accusations against Mexico of starting wars (even if the USA provoked those) to justify taking over New Mexico , California and Texas -
from the Federal Bank and US Treasury and their "Fiat Dollar Printing" Hegemony... to Wall Street... to Corporations handing the State Department and the STate Department handing over to weaker countries FAKE "future risks and development requirements" to weaker countries to force them to accept usurious loans (JOHN PERKINS - "CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HITMAN" - former CIA Economic Hitman) to undermine their economies and render their economies open to "our cultural and economic assault" (General SMEDLEY BUTLER, US MArines, 1933) ....
even to their "green economy" charades...onto to the "emissions cap and trade" ...to the claims about "moral righteousness"...."democracy"...."freedom"......"justice and fairness".....to the justifications for invading Iraq because of WMD's...to the accusations against Iran (while planting agents IN iran for more regime change pretending to be "democracy building") ...the claims about "protecting Europe" from terrorists by building Missiles AROUND russia....to claims about "the best health care in the world"....to claims about being the "christian nation"...
it is ALL a FRAUD...no other explanations needed. FRAUD, PERIOD.
THE USA is a FRAUD. PERIOD.
if the USA and its Capitalism and its self-righteous exceptionalism is supposed to be the repository of "western civilization" .....
an interesting quip applies to IT - from Mahatma Gandhi decades ago:
When asked : MISTEr GANDHI === "What do you think of WEstern Civilization?"
he answered:
"IT would be a good idea to have one".
No Danny, it won't. The guy who says we need masses in the street is right. Without pressure from below nothing will happen and it seems very hard to awaken our dumbed down population. But organizing is more important than continuous critiquing for the same crowd on the internet. But I appreciate alll you dig up.
artemix
The Obama Regime has demonstrated no interest in meaningful financial industry regulation and will continue to print money for extending unemployment insurance and other programs that discourage the electorate from activism that might pressure the government to enact more than token regulation.
Based on supply and demand you should be paying no more than $2.00 per gallon today for regular unleaded gas anywhere in the lower 48 states. In my neighborhood the price is pushing $3.00 per gallon. The extra dollar per gallon we are paying is the result of the the US Government providing unlimited money at low interest for speculators to game unregulated financial and commodities markets.
Obama's most egregious strategy is sanctioning the creation and survival of corporations that are too big to fail. 233 years of US history have taught us that corporations that are two big to fail are very good at creating fantastic wealth for 1% of the population at the expense of 99% of the population.
"Obama's most egregious strategy is sanctioning the creation and survival of corporations that are too big to fail." I could not agree less. He is the first President in quite a while who is attempting to do something about this problem. Whether he succeeds or fails, or makes but a half-hearted attempt, I do not know. But, at this early stage, your statement is 'egregious'.
What, specifically, are you referring to?
I haven't seen him do anything to re-regulate the markets. He has continued the "bailout" program as aggressively as Bush did. All I have seen him do is compromise and give up on all the things he promised in his campaign while his party enjoys a FILIBUSTER PROOF majority in the senate. He could be ramming single-payer health care through at this very moment. He could be dismantling these "too big to fail" corporations and investigating their obvious malfeasance. He could end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He could be forcing Israel to make peace with Palestine.
Instead, his administration is doing just what Bush was doing. Protecting and covering up for torturers, authorizing preventive detentions, continuing the market manipulation, just to name a few.
Obama is nothing more than a salesman working for The Corporation, and we have bought their bullshit for 4 more miserable years.
They are working on a plan to make huge finance outfits difficult to maintain by various new regulations. The thought is that many will split into smaller corporations to avoid the hassle. Whether anything truly revolutionary comes from this is of course another story.
And your source for this is....
Michelle?
Sasha?
A friend of a friend of a friend who knows someone in Chicago that is tight like that with Barack?
The story was recently in MSNBC and NYT.
You know what, Greg? Based on what we've seen from Mr. -Yes We Can, But I Won't- thus far, I wouldn't hold my breath.
How damned gullible can you be?