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PAULSON'S 'PLUNGE TEAM' MANIPULATING STOCK MARKET
The original purpose of the Plunge Protection Team was to prevent another 1987-type “Black Monday" stock market crash. This seems like a reasonable way to address the prospect of a major economic collapse following a terrorist attack or a natural disaster. However, the systemic weakness in the market and the great uncertainty surrounding hedge funds and derivatives suggests that the PPL is probably being used to stabilize an over-leveraged and thoroughly-debauched market system: Mike Whitney
When the Fed made the decision several months ago to not publish the rate of money it was feeding into the system ( E3 report ) ~ I smelled a rat for now the Fed could manipulate the market without any public oversight. In that regard, The Working Group on Financial Markets, also known as the Plunge Protection Team, was created by Ronald Reagan to prevent a repeat of the Wall Street meltdown of October 1987. The team includes the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Chairman of the SEC and the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
With U.S. manufacturing already in a recession, the dollar weak, consumer spending flat, the sub-prime real estate market in shambles, foreclosures peaking, housing sales tumbling, margin debt at all time highs ~ the stock market has had every reason to correct itself but it appears that the Plunge Protection Team may be artificially manipulating the market behind the scenes to create the appearance of financial solidity ~ a favorite trick of the Cheney/Bush administration.
Think of it like you ( the economy ) is living on your credit card but the bank lender ( the Fed ) keeps increasing your limit . Eventually the day of reckoning will happen but the perception is that you ( the economy ) are resilient but the hard reality is that your living on borrowed time.
There is a reason that Greenspan recently said we are heading for a recession later this year.
The world of Cheney/Rumsfeld/ Bush, Paulson and Rice is a world of soft perceptions ~ versus hard reality.
Their working mantra is Kissinger's famous quote ~ " It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true. "
Mike Whitney, ICH, blows the whistle on this secret team's interfering in the stock market and the important practical and moral issues that are invloved.
Excerpt: The tinkering of the PPT is sure to erode confidence in the unimpeded activity of capital markets. It’s astonishing to think that, after years of singing the praises of the “free market” as the ultimate expression of God’s divine plan; these same conservative ideologues and “market purists” favor a strategy for direct intrusion. The actions of the Plunge Protection Team prove that it’s all baloney. The “free market” is merely a public relations myth with no basis in reality. Saving the system will always take precedent over ideology; just as the “invisible hand” will always be overpowered by the manicured and mettlesome fingers of banking elites and Wall Street big wigs. It’s their system and they’re not going to let it get wiped out by some silly commitment to principle.
Allen L Roland
Juicing the Stock Market
The secret maneuverings of the Plunge Protection Team
By Mike Whitney
03/07/07 "ICH " -- -- The Working Group on Financial Markets, also know as the Plunge Protection Team, was created by Ronald Reagan to prevent a repeat of the Wall Street meltdown of October 1987. Its members include the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Chairman of the SEC and the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Recently, the team has been on high-alert given the increased volatility of the markets and, what Hank Paulson calls, "the systemic risk posed by hedge funds and derivatives.”
Last Tuesday’s 416 point drop in the stock market has sent tremors through global system. An 8% freefall on the Chinese stock exchange triggered a massive equities sell-off which continued sporadically throughout the week. The sudden shift in sentiment, from Bull to Bear, has drawn more attention to deeply rooted “systemic” problems in the US economy. US manufacturing is already in recession, the dollar continues to weaken, consumer spending is flat, and the sub-prime market in real estate has begun to nosedive. These have all contributed to the markets’ erratic behavior and created the likelihood that the Plunge Protection Team may be stealthily intervening behind the scenes.
According to John Crudele of the New York Post, the Plunge Protection Team’s (PPT) modus operandi was revealed by a former member of the Federal Reserve Board, Robert Heller. Heller said that disasters could be mitigated by “buying market averages in the futures market, thus stabilizing the market as a whole.” This appears to be the strategy that has been used.
Former-Clinton advisor, George Stephanopoulos, verified the existence of The Plunge Protection Team (as well as its methods) in an appearance on Good Morning America on Sept 17, 2000. Stephanopoulos said:
“Well, what I wanted to talk about for a few minutes is the various efforts that are going on in public and behind the scenes by the Fed and other government officials to guard against a free-fall in the markets….perhaps the most important the Fed in 1989 created what is called the Plunge Protection Team, which is the Federal Reserve, big major banks, representatives of the New York Stock Exchange and the other exchanges and they have been meeting informally so far, and they have a kind of an informal agreement among major banks to come in and start to buy stock if there appears to be a problem. They have in the past acted more formally… I don’t know if you remember but in 1998, there was a crisis called the Long term Capital Crisis. It was a major currency trader and there was a global currency crisis. And they, with the guidance of the Fed, all of the banks got together when it started to collapse and propped up the currency markets. And, they have plans in place to consider that if the markets start to fall.”
Stephanopoulos’ comments have never been officially denied. In fact, as Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the U.K. Telegraph notes, Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson has called for the PPT to meet with greater frequency and set up “a command centre at the US Treasury that will track global markets and serve as an operations base in the next crisis. The top brass will meet every six weeks, combining the heads of Treasury, Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and key exchanges”.
This suggests that the PPT may have been deeply involved in last Wednesday’s “miraculous” stock market rebound from Tuesday’s losses. There was no apparent reason for the market to suddenly “go positive” following a ruinous day that shook investor confidence around the world. The editors of the New York Times summarized the feelings of many market-watchers who were baffled by this odd recovery:
“The torrent of bad news on housing is only worsening, with a report yesterday that new home sales for January had their steepest slide in 13 years...Manufacturing has already slipped into a recession, with activity contracting in two of the last three months. How is it then that investors took Mr. Bernanke’s words as a “buy” signal?”
How indeed; unless other forces were operating secretly behind the scenes?
Click on http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17251.htm for remainder of article
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on Conscious talk radio www.conscioustalk.net
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