Did a CNBC Reporter Help Destroy Bear Stearns?
Let’s pick up “The Story of Deep Capture” where it left off – with the demise of Bear Stearns and the near collapse of the American financial system.
It’s April 2, 2008, and CNBC reporter Charlie Gasparino has just reported that Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld claims to have evidence that short-sellers, who profit from falling stock prices, actively colluded to bring down Bear Stearns.
Indeed, the SEC is already investigating precisely this possibility. The regulator has said that it would like to know whether short-sellers circulated false rumors about Bear Stearns’ liquidity and credit risk in order to spark a run on the bank. And it has announced that it is investigating allegations that hedge funds engaged in “naked short selling” to drive down Bear Stearns’ stock. This isn’t surprising considering that SEC numbers show, for example, that in the week of Bear Stearns’ destruction, up to 13 million of its shares were shorted naked – ie. sold and not yet delivered. That’s 13 million shares of phantom stock — and most experts assume there was much more of it, perhaps 100 millions fake shares, in parts of the system that the SEC doesn’t monitor.
Live on CNBC with Gasparino is reporter Herb Greenberg. Herb is a dishonest journalist. He has quite literally made a career out of taking dictation from a small group of closely affiliated short-selling hedge funds. Virtually every story he has ever written or broadcast has come from these people. He protects his hedge fund friends by repeatedly denying that phantom stock is a problem. And a former employee of a financial research shop called Gradient Analytics claims to have witnessed Herb conspiring with at least one short-seller, David Rocker, to hold his negative stories until Rocker could establish short positions. This is called front-running – a jailable offense.
CNBC is not concerned about this. Nor is it concerned that, in addition to his duties as a “journalist,” Herb is now also running his own financial research shop that caters to short-sellers. Yes, after years of denying that he has too-cozy relationships with short-sellers, Herb is now seeking to profit from those very relationships. His new company’s slogan is “bridging financial journalism and forensic analysis.” Anybody who believes that media and money don’t mix should be appalled.
Anyway, it is unsurprising that Herb is live on CNBC reporting that short-sellers had nothing to do with the demise of Bear Stearns. Instead, Herb says, Bear Stearns was taken down by a “crisis of confidence.” Could short-sellers have caused the “crisis of confidence?” Herb thinks not.
Herb says, “….if you take a look at [fellow CNBC reporter] David Faber’s reporting which was very interesting…”
* * * * * * * *
Good idea, Herb. Let us take a look at David Faber’s reporting. It was not just interesting. It was jaw-dropping – an utterly grotesque display of journalistic malfeasance.
Indeed, Faber’s reporting probably contributed a great deal to the precipitous collapse of Bear Stearns – an event so potentially calamitous that the Federal Reserve had to meddle in the investment banking sector for the first time since the great stock market crash of 1929.
On Tuesday, March 11, rumors were circulating around Wall Street that Bear Stearns was out of cash and that other banks were no longer accepting its credit risk. If anybody were to think these rumors were true, there would be panic – a run on the bank. If the rumors were false, as they quite demonstrably were, it was the job of the media to quash them.
CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino did his job. On that afternoon, he noted that there were “serious doubts” about Bear Stearns business model. He said that Bear Stearns was a “mediocre bank.” But he also noted that the rumors on Wall Street were suggesting something far worse –imminent bankruptcy–and that there was not a scrap of evidence suggesting that these rumors were true.
Gasparino quoted Bear Stearns CFO Sam Malinaro as saying “Why is this happening? I don’t know how to characterize it. If I knew why this was happening I would do something to address it. I spent all day trying to track down the sources of the rumors, but they are false. There is no liquidity crisis, no margin calls. It’s all nonsense.”
Gasparino stressed that there was no reason to doubt Bear Stearns’ claims. “I know Sam Malinaro pretty well,” he said. “He’s one of the best straight shooters in the markets.”
If Gasparino had stayed on the case, the uncertainty surrounding Bear Stearns’ liquidity and credit risk might have subsided, and the bank might have survived. But the next day, for some reason, Gasparino was taken off the Bear Stearns story, and David Faber took over.
A few rumors – even doctored memos falsely claiming that big banks had refused to accept Bear’s credit — were still circulating around Wall Street. Early that morning — Wednesday, March 12 — Faber interviewed Bear Stearns’ CEO, Alan Schwartz.
Actually, it was more like a prison interrogation than an interview. Faber demanded that Schwartz explain the rumors. Schwartz said the rumors were not true. Quite in contrast to Gasparino, Faber made it clear from his tone that viewers shouldn’t trust Bear’s executives.
Then Faber delivered this whopper: “…I’m told by a hedge fund that I know well…I’m told that [last night] Goldman would not accept the counterparty risk of Bear Stearns.”
Bang! The beginning of the end.
Understand how important this is. Previously, most people assumed that the rumors about Bear’s access to leverage were nothing more than…rumors. No reporter had suggested otherwise.
Now, for the first time – live on CNBC, in the middle of a mission-critical interview with Bear’s CEO — a prominent journalist was reporting that the rumors were true. He stated — as if it were fact – that Goldman Sachs, one of the biggest investment banks in the world, had refused to take Bear Stearns’ credit.
Faber was generous enough to note that this information came from a hedge fund “friend,” and it wouldn’t take a genius to see that this hedge fund “friend” was probably some skeezy short-seller of Bear Stearns’ stock – but still, Faber’s comment was nuclear explosive.
Soon after Faber’s comment, Schwartz is about to provide details proving that Bear Stearns is not at all illiquid – that it has ample cash (and is therefore hardly a credit risk). He says: “…none of the speculations are true, but….”
Just then, a woman’s voice interrupts: “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
What? Can this possibly be happening? The CEO of a giant investment bank is about to provide evidence that the bank is not insolvent – that the American financial system is therefore not on the brink of collapse. This is perhaps the most important financial news moment of the past ten years, and now CNBC has cut off the CEO in mid-sentence!
“I’m sorry,” the CNBC woman says. “David, I’m sorry breaking news, I just want you to know that we have New York state officials confirming that New York governor Elliot Spitzer will resign today. Formal resignation, we don’t have it, but it is now confirmed that the governor of New York will resign today.”
“Thanks for that not unexpected news,” says David Faber.
This was probably straight-forward idiocy – nothing more sinister than that. But you’d think CNBC could have waited a few minutes for this “not unexpected” news. And anybody with a healthy sense of irony might chuckle and point out that Jim Cramer, the former hedge fund manager who is now CNBC’s top-rated personality and basically runs the place, was Elliot Spitzer’s best friend and college roommate. The irony is all the richer when you consider that Elliot Spitzer’s career was built almost entirely on the funding and machinations of a small group of short selling hedge fund managers – including Dan Loeb, David Einhorn, and Jim Chanos (owner of the beach house where Spitzer’s favorite hooker lived rent free), and that these very same hedge fund managers are the ones who are quite aggressively attacking Bear Stearns.
Schwartz looked mighty pissed off. After the interruption, he tried to continue: “We put out a statement that our liquidity and balance sheet are strong. Maybe I should expand on that a little bit…”
“Well, yeah,” Faber interrupts. “Why don’t you.”
The reporter’s tone again suggests that the CEO is not to be trusted. Tone aside, Faber doesn’t let Schwartz answer. Instead, he launches into a long and completely irrelevant monologue about the markets generally being in bad shape.
“Well, the markets have certainly gotten worse,” says Schwartz, clearly baffled by all of this.
Then, finally, the CEO manages to provide the salient information – the information that Bear Stearns customers and traders around the world have been waiting to hear. He says, “Our balance sheet has not changed at all. So let me just talk about that for a second….When we finished the year we reported that we had $17 billion of cash sitting at the parent company as a liquidity cushion…Since year end, that liquidity cushion has virtually been unchanged. So we still have many many billions of excess cash…we don’t see any pressure on our liquidity let alone a liquidity crisis.”
That certainly should have calmed the waters. There was no evidence that Schwartz was being disingenuous about having that $17 billion. Bear Stearns might have been the crappiest bank on Wall Street, but as long as customers knew that Bear Stearns had that $17 billion in cash, there was unlikely to be a run on the bank.
Unless, that is, a “reputable” media source was to suggest that, say, Goldman Sachs, had cut off credit.
Astonishingly, in the ensuing 24 hours, CNBC never once repeats the news that Bear Stearns has $17 billion in cash. And though it repeatedly references the interview with Schwartz, the network does not once replay the CEO’s strongest comment: “We don’t see any pressure on our liquidity, let alone a liquidity crisis.”
But Faber does repeat the startling “news” about Goldman.
At 8:48 AM on Wednesday, he says, “There are a lot of concerns out there…about counterparty risk. Frankly, I’ve been hearing from people whom I trust that there are some firms out there unwilling to put on new – new — counterparty risk with Bear Stearns…You had it at Goldman…Goldman said no we’re not taking Bear’s counterparty risk – this was yesterday.”
The hedge fund manager whom Faber “trusts” was lying. Goldman was not turning down Bear’s credit. We know this because some minutes later in the broadcast, Faber says so. He says it very quickly, just as an aside, as if it doesn’t matter at all. He says, by the way, “I have heard that that trade did actually go through—Goldman did say alright, now we will accept Bear as a counterparty.”
So Faber has just admitted, in an off-handed kind of way, that he was lied to by the hedge fund he “trusts.” In other words, up until this point, there is no evidence at all that rumors being circulated by hedge funds have any merit whatsoever.
Despite this, Faber proceeds to unleash this gobbledygook: “At the end of the day, while they say over and over they have plenty of liquidity, and in fact they may, it all comes down to confidence. They need to have access to capital, access to leverage. Otherwise, they’re dead! And it can happen very quickly.”
With this, Faber looks at his computer, and says, “Let’s see where the stock is.” Then he declares with glee: “Oops! It’s down!”
So now Faber has just pronounced that Bear Stearns might be “dead!” Why might Bear Stearns be “dead?” Because, Faber says, Bear needs “access to capital” – this in the same sentence where he says “in fact they may” have plenty of liquidity (ie. access to capital). Perhaps by “may” he meant to suggest that Bear “may not” have access to capital. Either way, he carefully omits the fact that the bank has told him it has $17 billion in cash.
The other reason Bear is “dead” is because it needs “access to leverage.” Is there any evidence that it does not have access to leverage? So far, there is none other than the Goldman news, which Faber has just admitted to be a complete fabrication delivered to him by a hedge fund “friend” whom he “trusts.”
Meanwhile, in an effort to send Bear Stearns’ share price spiraling downward, hedge funds are selling tens of millions of dollars worth of phantom stock. SEC data shows that more than 1.2 million shares sold that Wednesday were not delivered on time.
It only gets worse. The next morning — Thursday, March 13 — there is still no evidence that anybody is turning away Bear’s credit or pulling out money. CNBC still has yet to repeat the all important $17 billion figure. And now, Faber is back on television, fanning the flames, and repeating the bogus Goldman news.
He says, “I talked [yesterday] about a particular trade I was aware of where Goldman Sachs did not want to stand up as a counterparty and face Bear on new counterparty risk.”
Yes, David, you did talk about Goldman – and you admitted that your information was false. Why are you repeating this?
In a stuttering attempt to explain himself, Faber says to his television audience, “Now ultimately that trade did take place [ie. Goldman did accept Bear’s credit] after my interview with Mr. Schwartz concluded, but the day prior, Goldman did not want to. I have incontrovertible proof of that.”
Right. Whatever. The SEC should subpoena Faber to find out which market-manipulating hedge fund fed him the false information about Goldman.
Of course, if the SEC were to do this, the Media Mob would go berserk and start waving the First Amendment right to protect hedge funds who take down public companies by feeding journalists false information. Remember that the SEC once tried to subpoena Herb Greenberg and Jim Cramer, only to back down after Cramer vandalized his government subpoena live on CNBC and a bunch of Herb and Cramer’s media pals rose up in their defense.
But enough of this, already. These journalists are not protecting whistleblowers or freedom of speech. These journalists cannot even properly be called “journalists.” They are, or at least aspire to be, market players. They are helping slippery hedge fund managers who are destroying public companies for profit, and putting the American financial system at risk. I’m all for real reporters standing up to federal agencies, but these “journalists” are special cases. The SEC should not allow itself to be intimidated by them.
Alas, it’s too late for Bear Stearns. On the morning of March 13, there was still no evidence that anybody had pulled money out of Bear Stearns or denied its credit, but after repeating the Goldman falsehood, Faber reported: “I remember when Drexel Burnham went down [the smarmy inference being that Bear Stearns is a crooked company similar to Drexel]…It happens fast, very fast. It happens because those who do business with a firm such as that [read: `a crooked firm’] lose confidence.”
“And when they lose confidence,” Faber continued, “they pull their lines, and that’s it. It’s done. Pack your bags. Go home. It can end in an hour.”
About an hour later, a hedge fund called Renaissance Technologies Corp., shifted $5 billion out of Bear Stearns. That was the first client to “pull its lines.” Many others followed suit.
With Faber blowing taps, panic ensued.
And by that evening, Bear was, indeed, “dead.”
Posted in The Mitchell Report |
June 26th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Faber should be suspended w/o pay and investigated. This is a 29bb error, not to mention jobs, market panic, etc.
I remember when this happened and Fuld came out with his comment. Two things. One, he had to be afraid it would happen to him. In retrospect, he had to know Einhorn was on his ass, and may resort to such tactics. Two, the ONLY PLACE HE COULD GET SUCH INFORMATION SO QUICKLY COULD ONLY BE………
his own trading desk.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:50 am
I saw the whole thing happen on t.v. and yes it did go down as explained.I know people who have lost everything as a result of these reporters.Do we have a capable SEC to investigate or are they too involved in helping hedge funds.Where is there a legit govt. agency to do whats best for the general public.Its not there.What we have is a phantom agency that caters only to the super wealthy.CNBC should be taken off the air.Period
June 26th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Is it possible that Faber received his marching orders to “pummel” Bear Stearns from the Fax at CNBC that does not “exist”that morning? Folks, this is as clear as day. Now what people should be asking is the following 1)What was the info that Fuld had to show that Bear Stearns was naked shorted out of existence? 2) Since the SEC announced an investigation into Goldman Saks, Citadel Hedge Fund and John Paulsen (Mr. I made 3.7 bill in salary betting against the mortagage industry in 2007) for trading “irregularities,should we not infer that there was serious crimes committed to warrant such an investigation? Also you think that Paulsen may have committed these same infractions when he made that outrageous amount of salary in 2007 or was this his first such offence (sarcasm)? Its right there in front of our faces, we just are not allowed to do anything about it. Hopefully this movement will change that.They are starting to feed on their own, we knew this was coming Thanks Mark.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Disgraceful and no one is talking about it but on the blogs…these people all need to go to jail..imho.. what is wrong with America..
Rome is similiar. youknow..
stop fiddling and spread the word…
June 26th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
it would be great to post a link for the Faber video….
June 26th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
The Media blitz has already started to Destroy Citigroup.
Citigroup sinks to 10-year low, Goldman urges short sale By Neha Singh
Thu Jun 26, 10:53 AM ET
BANGALORE (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc (C.N) shares fell to their lowest level in nearly a decade after a Goldman Sachs & Co analyst said investors should sell the largest U.S. bank’s stock short as losses mount from troubled debt.
Please read the rest of the article by pulling up the following link.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080626/bs_nm/citigroup_research_goldman_dc_8;_ylt=AqNf.8TGKx1FIvHywu0S4DsE1vAI
June 26th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
It seems to be getting worst and these reporter/journalists getting more brazen instead of laying low. Are they that confident that they can get away with this crime or do they know that the end is near and that they better get while the gettin is good?
June 27th, 2008 at 6:14 am
The lack of understanding in this article is shocking, from its mis-use of the phrase ‘front-running’ to its demonization of short-selling using words like ‘phantom’ and ‘fake’ (shorting shares is not creating fake or phantom shares).
I do not have any direct interest in defending short sellers, and I agree that this journalist and the people he may have been in collusion with seem to have been acting illegally, BUT …
It is articles like this one that allow politicians to ignore the real (hard to solve) problems in our economic system, and instead present populist conspiracy stories against speculators.
The same is currently happening with oil — people need to accept that speculators provide a service (liquidity and risk hedging) and are always going to be on the front end of a collapse, just as they have been on the front end of the last 7 years of unprecedented growth, because that is their role.
June 27th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Big diff there , JJ, between speculation and manipulation. Re read the article very closely. “faked memos”? Wouldn’t consitute fraud? Did you see “stockgate”, which documented the fails over that period.
And nothing here is a foreign concept. Big Jim Cramer documented it for us all. He said in the famous Aaron Task interview that you just called some Bozo reporter. Faber fills that bill.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:16 am
JJ…The Data on the trading decline of Bear Stearns is available at http://www.sec.gov. A Phantom Trade, Naked Short, etc…is by definition that sale of a share without intent on delivery. I have posted some of the data with a descriptor behind the data at:
http://investigatethesec.com/drupal-5.5/StockgateToday
Tell us after you review this data how fails accumulating to 13 Million shares in a single day takes place in Bear Stearns DURING the raid and it not impact the market trading? On a single day over $64 Million in Bear Stearns shares was traded that were never delivered on time.
Being on the front end of an event is one thing. Being on the front end of an event you manufacture illegally is quite another.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Has anyone other than myself been curious as to how Joe Louis (sp) lost over 1 billion dollars in less than 5 months on Bear Stearns and has not gone after anyone about this debacle? What’s that about? I know that I’d be very upset. especially with all the hoopla surrounding this debacle.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Sean,
You will see a lot of people going after the various co-conspirators and their enablers (including, eventually, the corrupt “journalists”), just give it time. While the offshore scum may still be in the shadows, their US enablers are quite “touchable,” and are in the cross hairs. I would not want to be a bought and paid for “journalist” these days.
The interesting thing is that these whores would so aggressively and openly perpetrate this crime against one of their own. It smacks of desperation at a higher level to resolve a much larger problem that had to be resolved quickly utilizing whatever means necessary…and let the lawyers and friendly (paid for) regulators and stooge politicians assist with the cover up later.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Bear Stearns was a rounding error!!!!
The global economy is falling apart all around us. We can expect a continued rise in the price of gold and silver as it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Federal Reserve, the U.S. government and even Alan Greenspan are doing everything they can to destroy the value of the U.S. Dollar. In fact, the policies currently being implemented by the establishment is criminal because by devaluing the U.S. Dollar they are indirectly robbing from the American middle class by destroying the purchasing power of everyone’s bank accounts that are denominated in U.S. Dollars. At this point it is becoming increasingly clear that the establishment wants a weaker U.S. Dollar considering some of the insane policies they are implementing and insane things that they are saying.
What makes this rise in precious metals particularly interesting is the fact that the IMF has been dumping gold on to the market and gold continues to move up in value. The manipulation of the gold market is starting to fail as is the policy of managing a slow decline of the U.S. Dollar without a parabolic rise in precious metals. The rise in silver has been particularly spectacular rising around $1 in price yesterday and it shows no signs of slowing down. At this point we could easily see gold at $1,000 an ounce and silver at $20 an ounce within the next month or two. So why is all of this happening? Let’s take a look at some of the news that has come out in the past few days.
First, Alan Greenspan actually told Arab nations in the Gulf to drop their peg to the U.S. Dollar. He actually said that the reason why they have so much inflation in their economies is because they are pegged to the U.S. Dollar. Greenspan is essentially admitting that there is inflation built into the U.S. Dollar and that’s why they are having problems with inflation. His statements also serve to undermine confidence in the value of the U.S. Dollar since many people pay close attention to what the former Federal Reserve chairman has to say. Even worse though, is that if these Arab nations decide to drop their peg to the U.S. Dollar this will further reduce demand for the currency. This will result in the U.S. Dollar continuing its move lower.
It is certainly ironic that Greenspan who actually created this economic mess through his easy money policies in the early part of the decade is now encouraging other countries to move away from the U.S. Dollar. Greenspan has done everything he could to destroy the currency both while he was the Federal Reserve chairman and he’s continuing to do it years after he quit the post. Even when Greenspan was the Federal Reserve chairman all he did was increase the money supply and reduce interest rates whenever there was an economic crisis. Greenspan is a criminal because his policies are responsible for the current housing crisis and many of the other problems we are seeing with the economy today. It is disgusting that Greenspan would actually make statements that he knows will facilitate a further destruction of the U.S. Dollar.
Second, the current Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke shows no signs of reversing course and setting policies that will save the U.S. Dollar. Bernanke testified in front of Congress today and he indicated that they would continue to reduce interest rates to prop up the economy. This is also a criminal act. Bernanke would prefer to sacrifice the value of the U.S. Dollar just to make the stock market look as if it is treading water. It is much more destructive from a long term basis to destroy the monetary unit that the economy is based off of than it is to raise interest rates and defend the monetary unit. The Federal Reserve should be raising interest rates to defend the U.S. Dollar. This would cause an immediate economic slowdown but long term it would save the economy. Bernanke has decided to choose the wrong option and this could cause an inflationary collapse.
Third, the FDIC is predicting that we are facing a crisis. An article from the Wall Street Journal revealed that the FDIC is actually bringing on more people to deal with future bank failures. They aren’t hiring new people because it’s a fun thing to do. They are bringing people on because they believe things are starting to spiral out of control. This is without question an ominous indication that we could be on the brink of a major collapse.
Fourth, the government announced that they are lifting restrictions on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in terms of the amount of mortgages they are allowed to hold. As private banks fail, the government will need these two entities to take over more of these mortgages. This is another indicator that the government believes that we could see a ton of these private banks fail.
Fifth, the Russians are going to slowly start moving their oil sales away from U.S. Dollars and into Rubles. This will further erode demand for the U.S. Dollar and continue accelerating its slide downward. This combined with the Iranian oil bourse which has recently come online is going to increase pressure on the value of the U.S. Dollar. The Iranian oil bourse trades oil and other commodities for currencies other than the U.S. Dollar. It is certainly interesting that we’ve seen a huge decline in the U.S. Dollar since the Iranian oil bourse began operations.
Sixth, we are beginning to see an escalation in food prices. In particular, the price of wheat has gone through the roof and there have been reports of panic buying. This is not only a monetary phenomenon but it is also the result of the fact that there are government subsidies for biofuels. Biofuels are essentially the result of food being turned into fuel which means there is less food in the open market and this has resulted in the price of food moving up. The United Nations has already been warning of food shortages and there have been reports of food riots in different Middle East countries. This is something that could occur in the United States if the government continues to subsidize biofuels and the Federal Reserve continues to inflate the money supply.
As scary as this is, these are just some of the lowlights over a few days of economic news. To summarize, these news stories indicate that the U.S. Dollar is being destroyed on several different fronts and this is resulting in gold, silver and other commodities going up in U.S. Dollar denominated terms. We didn’t even get a chance to talk about the phony tax rebate scam and the out of control spending by the clowns in Washington DC which are also contributing to this disaster. The U.S. Dollar Index has dropped substantially and we now see a situation where the U.S. Dollar is at an all-time low versus the Euro. We are about to witness a financial calamity of epic proportions and the establishment shows no sign of wishing to implement policies to reverse this. The end game appears to be the continued destruction of the U.S. Dollar which will allow the establishment to implement the North American Union and a regional currency which will completely undermine the sovereignty of the United States. The crisis in the U.S. Dollar will be used to facilitate this phony solution which will give the big multinational corporations and central bankers even more power.
The only way to survive this coming economic disaster is to buy physical gold and silver. It also wouldn’t hurt to stockpile ammunition, firearms, storable foods and survival equipment. This is a very serious situation. We are going to see a substantial rise in gold, silver and other commodities and we should see a spectacular rise in the price of many junior mining stocks. The U.S. Dollar is being destroyed through inflation and those who own precious metals will be rewarded as precious metals serve as a fantastic defense against the criminal central bankers that set these criminal policies.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Dr Bryne, in answer to your earlier question regarding the demise of BSC “Is this it?”….”to which I answered _No_ they will paper it over”………What I heard is in the next wave is so gargantuan I don’t believe it possible to survive in the same way ever again”
June 30th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Dear Mark,
I just read your disturbing piece ‘Did a CNBC Reporter Help Destroy Bear Stearns?’ These are serious allegations.
I’m compiling a book of interviews with TV producers, directors and journalists about television’s power to distort. Is there any chance we could have a chat off-thread about this topic some time over the summer?
Good luck with your work,
Mark G. / Budapest
June 30th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Mark Griffith,
I’d be happy to chat. Send me your contacts at mitch0033@gmail.com.
Mark Mitchell
July 1st, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Let’s not forget that CNBC gets ratings from sensation. Self proclaimed biggest ratings day that following Monday. CNBC promotes chaos and gets rating all the while GE trades at new 52 week lows. Way to win the battle and lose the war GE.
July 13th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Hi Mark,
Ever hear of Spear Leeds & Kellogg? They are the largest specialist and clearing firm on the NYSE, & AMEX etc….
I worked as a Nasdaq Market Maker for 10 Years on both coasts
Traded with many Institutions and Hedgies.
Before the computers took over, the market makers would see everything.
Feel free to email me.
I like your contest, and have some pretty amazing stories.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:41 am
In 2002 I was invited to submit a comment on short selling by the SEC The following link will take you directly to the entire text of my submission.
http://www.sec.gov/rules/concept/s72499/waurilio080102.htm
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:50 pm
that whole crew on cnbc are acting like they’ve found a cure for cancer. A bunch of pompous smarmy cue card readers who have far to much say and power these broadcasts are reckless and should all be investgated. These aren’t journalists. There is nothing fair or balanced about anything they do!!!!!! Phooey!
August 5th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
August 27th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
[...] on-air discussion with CNBC’s Joe Kernen (who is not mentioned in our story) and David Faber (who sparked the collapse of Bear Stearns by reporting false information fed to him by a hedge fund manager whom he has “known for 20 [...]