Absolutely right – it can only be a *short* if there is possession (buy or borrow) prior to the sale. Otherwise you are selling something you do not possess.

Sure it creates liquidity – if everyone went out and sold things they didn’t possess there would be a hell of lot of liquidity. The question is: where is the drain sucking up the excess liquid.

START using the term: COUNTERFEIT STOCK. People understand that.

START using the term: COUNTERFEIT STOCK. People understand that.

Hoping the right eyes eventually see all of this.

Otherwise, good job!

In a recent letter to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, Senate Finance Ranking Member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said he is concerned about an internal “Ethics NewsGram” memo posted on the SEC’s internal Web site.

The memo, titled “Loose Lips Sink Ships,” warns against disclosing nonpublic information without obtaining prior authorization from the commission. Nonpublic information, as defined in the memo, includes “all information” about an employee’s work at the SEC. Grassley said he fears the language in the memo is too broad, and may prevent staffers from speaking out if they have concerns.

“This kind of memo sends a chilling message to SEC employees,” said Grassley. “It shows we need to keep a close eye on what bureaucrats are doing at the SEC because it might not be consistent with the leadership’s commitment to reform and being more receptive to whistleblowers.”

The memo, which was distributed to employees on April 2, says they should consider all information to be nonpublic unless they “read it in the news or have clearance” from a supervisor. It also states that employees can’t discuss their work in front of outside visitors or even any other SEC employees who may “overhear your conversations in an SEC elevator, rest room, kitchen, snack bar, public restaurants, the metro, taxis, airports, and so on.”

“I am requesting that you give serious consideration to supplementing the April 2, 2009, memorandum and all future such memoranda with an explicit recognition of SEC employees’ whistleblower rights and an acknowledgment of the SEC’s responsibilities to respect and protect such disclosures,” Grassley wrote to Schapiro in response to the memo.

SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment on the letter, but on Wednesday, the SEC’s ethics office updated the memo on the agency’s internal Web site to clarify that the rules on disclosure don’t trample the rights of whistleblowers.

“We would like to clarify that the discussion of these rules in this NewsGram does not, and was not intended to, apply in any way to another very important area of the law: employees’ whistleblower rights,” the updated memo reads. “You should not read our advice as in any way related to your rights to disclose waste, fraud, or abuse to the proper authorities.”

Grassley doesn’t sit on the Senate Banking Committee, which has jurisdiction over the SEC, but he has taken an active interest in the SEC’s enforcement staff and whistleblower issues there.

Several years ago, he launched a congressional investigation into allegations that former SEC staff attorney Gary Aguirre was fired for complaining that SEC enforcement officials had tried to block him from interviewing Morgan Stanley (MS) Chief Executive John Mack as part of his insider-trading investigation into the hedge-fund firm Pequot Capital Management. Aguirre claimed Mack received special treatment by SEC enforcement management. Neither Pequot nor Mack was ever ultimately charged with any wrongdoing.

Grassley, along with then-Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, eventually released a report in 2007 which faulted the SEC’s former inspector general for not vigorously investigating Aguirre’s claims of whistleblower retaliation.

The report made several recommendations, including a suggestion that the SEC draft a manual of procedures for conducting investigations and develop a plan within its office of the inspector general to ensure independence from agency management.

In April, Schapiro sent a letter to Grassley assuring him she would work toward implementing the suggestions made in the 2007 report. The SEC is supposed to report back to Grassley by Friday on its progress.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090506-720297.html

Come on, level with us. How did you get Cramer on board? What do you have on Cramer? Pictures of him in church saluting an American flag while standing beside a Republican? Or what?