March 6, 2009
The following is a message I sent to the President and various leadership people. These are easy practical solutions to solve some of our major problems. Give it some consideration.
"Dear President Obama,
I am a recently retired, lifelong Republican. I used to be on the California Republican Central Committee. I may never vote Republican again. My wife and I not only voted for you but also worked to get you elected. We also worked to get Gordon Smith defeated. Not because he was so bad, but we wanted to deny the Republican Leadership with any power in Congress during your 8 years. My degree is in Money and Banking and Economics from UCSB. I had a successful career in big and small businesses; as an economist, operations management, entrepreneur, mergers and acquisitions, CEO, CFO, and others.
Since I retired, I have seen my retirement nest egg decline 55%. I am a seasoned and sophisticated investor. By investor I meanBuy and Hold”/ I have learned over the years that Wall Street and News People are referring to Insiders, Traders and Speculators when they say Investors. These Pros are not talking about Main Streetinvestor who are the prey for these people. They privately boast about the ; haircuts they give the public, and the way they can drive a company’t/markes stock price. The Dow, Nasdaq, S&P, and other major markets have little to do anymore with investing in companies, or the real value or worth of companies traded there. Their culture is “hreat income to themselves at any price”/ The huge volatility recently is driven by sell short, cover, sell short. Usually in one or two days. Frequently several cycles in one day. The uptick rule used to dampen this powerful trading approach.
There is an urgent need to either reinstitute the uptick rule for short sales NOW, or suspend short sales in all stocks for a significant period of time. Naked Short sales are primarily used by day traders, and speculators. Their greed is causing REAL PAIN TO MAINSTREET.
Also Commodities trading and the futures trading in commodities should only be allowed by entities able to make or take delivery of the commodity or a significant end user. This would take most of the high volatility and speculation out of energy prices and the economic impacts.
Another approach would be to change the tax rate on trading profits (something like 30 days, round trip in/out) to double the short term rate.
The media and your opponents are using the stock market values and nosebleed swings as the measure of the effectiveness of you recovery programs. Except possibly for bonds there is no real connections between the stock market and the economy in todas world. You must do something to either disconnect the association or thwart the greedy traders ability to drive the markets at their whim."
Richard Stockett