Dennis Berman digs up a fascinating excerpt on short-selling from the 1932 hearings on the stock market crash. it’s a shame we don’t seem to have anyone in Congress now even capable of formulating the question asked by New York Congressman Frank Oliver: “They blamed the ‘shorts,’ whereas, as a matter of fact, if the prices were inflated, they should have blamed the ‘longs’ for having inflated them?”
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Ah, thanks Dennis.
Can you find some testimony from the Danish kings following the tullip craze. The older the better.
Ah, thanks Dennis.
Can you find some testimony from the Danish kings following the tullip craze. The older the better.
found a similar article, for those of you who are uber-nerds, in JSTOR. it deals with people blaming commodity prices increases in the late 40′s.
please change your lehman poll.
thanks.
why, 4:33? fuld’s fate is still hangs.
How can politicians pander to the voters and create villains that need to be regulated into submission if politicians are forced to deal with facts?
If Sarbanes-Oxley taught us anything it was that it is the American way to legislate after the fact so we get all the costs of regulation and none of the benefits.
@3 – Wow JSTOR. I haven’t heard that since college. Good lord man.
uh, wasn’t the tulip (one ‘l’) bubble in Holland… which would make them Dutch… not Danish ..
If you dig more, for you uber-nerds log onto JSTOR, you can find many investigations of commodity price manipulation by speculators dating back to WWI
@8 Yes. I have a few memos that need a good editor. What’s your hourly rate?
It’s funny because at the end of the day, it’s the same villains – hedge funds and their ilk. As long as you blame the people trading the securities and not the people who, y’know, fucked up the companies, it doesn’t matter which way you point the blame.
Then again there was a case of a CEO shorting his own bank. Some thought that fiducially irresponsible.
hahaha, i heard JSTOR,
I’m in college and i use JSTOR.
good stuff.
There are scapegoats and there are villains. Distinquishing between the two is one of the major inquiries of life.
Once upon a time, Congress had active committees and subcommittees that weren’t afraid to use their subpoena power, developed evidence, and fully considered an issue before legislating. Both parties participated in the process. Sometimes a national consensus would develop. Sometimes, even, a President would lead the iniative.
Now we have a few appointed men consider a crisis over a week-end and act unilaterally if they believe they can. At most they present their solution to a cowed Congress and expect the immediate enactment of legislation that will create long-term, far-reaching effects.
how has no one pointed out that oliver’s statement just might be the smartest thing ever said by a congressman
15: Which TV docudrama was that then?