As Mentioned 7-15 on ATG - SEC To Suppress Criticism of Malinvestment and Imbalance in Financial Industry

As Gard discussed yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (something most of the Founders would have thought repugnant) is "investigating" brokers and financial advisers who "spread rumors" about the flimsy bottom lines of lending, investment and savings institutions.

Supposedly, this is being done to quell reckless profiteering by the rumor-mongerers, who "place financial institutions in jeopardy" with their lies.

Since the collapse of Indymac, and the straw-dog accusations that the collapse was "brought about" by a letter written by Senator Chuck Schumer and released to the press, the statists in charge of the money supply and the "regulation" of the US economy (since when was that consistent with a free society? Sounds more like the USSR to anyone with a memory) tell us that they have to protect America against reckless rumors. This is a red-herring. In fact, what the SEC is attempting to do is to stop public criticism, to smother it with threats of investigation, in the hopes of keeping the public eye away from just how bad the fundamentals are for many lending institutions. If investment advisers were spreading false information, they could already be sued for libel or slander. That did not happen with the Bear-Stearns breakdown, and it will not happen with Indymac -- BECAUSE THEY WERE UNSOUND DUE TO RECKLESS LOANS BROUGHT ABOUT BY LOOSE FED MONETARY POLICY AND "INCENTIVES" like Deposit Insurance from the Treasury! Critics of the corporations were RIGHT to expose them, and they should go further to expose the government policies that helped bring about their failures. BUT NOW there will be fewer people speaking out, thanks to the SEC intimidation. Nothing like free speech, huh? Here is the latest piece on it, from the Financial Times of London:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d28fc66a-52a9-11dd-9ba7-000077b07658.html?ncli...

And even more, from Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ansrs4i.J_Ek&refer=w...