Coverup! Why "Martha" was Used and Why it's Important for all of us.

[KoKo]

An excellent viewpoint from "Financial Sense" by Martin Goldberg.

Woody: What do you think About Martha Stewart? Was she guilty?

Martin: Martha Stewart? In September, mutual funds were caught stealing via late trading, and they are only getting a slap on the wrist, while the idiot public puts record amounts into mutual funds not equaled since March of 2000! And instead of complete coverage of exactly what they did to steal from us, and how much they stole, for corporate governance coverage we get practically nothing but “Martha, Martha, Martha”. Now consider, the mutual funds were taking money practically right out of our pockets via late trading. We are just here working if we are lucky, having a beer afterward and trying to save for our kid’s college education. And now some fund manager is going to basically break into my accounts, and take money from my kids, my wife, and me. And what’s even more surprising is that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was basically silent on the situation until Eliot Spitzer caught the funds red-handed. The SEC got into the game only afterward. And CNBC has the galls to question Mr. Spitzer’s motivation a few weeks later on a “Squawk Back Question”. “Was Eliot Spitzer politically motivated?” The nerve. Only in America! I wonder sometimes if the failure of any one to do anything before Mr. Sptizer about late trading was “politically motivated”.

If someone gets rolled in the red light district, I understand that someone committed a crime and should probably be punished. But if they don’t get punished, what do I care? I don’t go into the red light district; and if I did, I would know that getting rolled was a distinct possibility. So Martha Stewart may have traded a couple thousand shares of Imclone based on something she may have known. The average share of Imclone was turned over about once a month at that time. So basically the stock is flipped once a month and is an item of speculation or gambling, and probably little else. So the way I figure it, the guy who bought Martha’s shares should have known that he could lose because he was trading in the red light district. But you and me? We’re not in any red light district! We’re just trying to save and invest for our kid’s college. So when some guy in a suit from a mutual fund violates my space, and takes money from my pocket, I become mad. And when the press says relatively little about this crime, yet bombards me with hours of coverage of Martha Stewart and the couple thousand shares of Imclone, I have to figure that some thing just is not right with the news media. But most people, they don’t care. This is because their stocks and mutual funds are going up. And the stealing is more abstract to them compared to if fund managers actually came in here and literally picked their pocket. You can bet that if their pockets were picked here, they would be quite angry.

Frankly I don’t care about Martha Stewart. And it irks me that a lot of people do care about her. You know what? When this bubble bursts, everyone is going to care about these things, double. But it will be too late for the people who held on too long.

You know, I even saw a commercial for Putnam during the St. Joe’s versus Oklahoma State game on Saturday night. And it was one of the typical mutual fund commercials. About what great fiduciaries they are. How careful and thorough they are. No apology either, which surprised me for about a split second. Now that’s major gall! I would not have cared if there were a commercial for a Martha Stewart product during the game though.
http://www.financialsense.com/Market/wrapup.htm

[MSgt213]

1. Mean while everything possible is being done to get of the Tyco execs

who robbed that company. The reason. The laws are written so that small people go to jail while connected ones don't. Let me explain what happen to Martha could happen to any of us. I'm not calling Martha small fry, but she is out of the loop of the true criminals. The true criminals are corporations and congress who work together to enact rules and regulations for companies that allow them to steal from people. The laws that convicted Martha were pretty simple and straight forward. The laws protecting the TyCo people are complicated and not easily provable. That's why the government can have an extremely strong case against her and look totally out of their league againts the TyCo people.

[KoKo]

4. Yes, but the article shows that Martha's prosecution was a tool for

covering up whats been going on with our 401-K's and that affects all of us in the future. Especially since the movement is to Privatize Social Security so that more market fraud can take place robbing us of whatever we have left for our future.

It matters to all from those who have their first jobs in their twenties up to the older folks who didn't get "pensions" like their Grandfathers and Fathers did. And it affects our economy for those of us who don't have jobs that offer any investment but we have to try to save something somehow, sometime.

This has to be fixed by our new Democratic Administration, but the lobbyists have done their work and the Bushies have tried to block real reforms and so all that's being done as much as Spitzer has tried is "handslaps" and a high profile prosecution like Martha's so that we focus on her and her celebrity and the folks who loved or hated her rather than the REAL problems underlying our whole economy and what's being stolen from us in as the author says "The Red Light District."

[MSgt213]

5. Well we agree on that point. What I'm trying to point out though is the

way these laws are drafted makes it easy for large business interest to steal money not only from investor's but from their customers and their own company. Thanks to these convulted laws, rules and regulations corporations have a easy time lying about what they are worth and doing.

[President Jesus]

2. Do campaign contributions explain this? Possibly.

Look at the difference and you tell me...

Martha Stewart
vs.
Dennis Kozlowski

[xchrom]

3. nicely done

very nicely done.
thanks for the read.