Economic Terrorism – Is The Stock Market Being Manipulated?
October 16, 2008 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
Attributing the recent volatility on the stock market to economic terrorism or financial terrorism is perhaps a bit of a stretch however rumors are circulating on the Internet and elsewhere that it may be at least partially to blame.
This past weekend, on a Fox News special report “Rescue the Rescue” hosted by Neil Cavuto, Mike Huckabee brings up the possibility that the US stock market meltdown could be caused by terrorists bent on causing a financial crash. He notes that for 11 consecutive days there has been a large spike in the volume of sell transactions in the last 30 minutes that the US markets are open.
Watch the video here.
So is this all just speculation?
While searching various blogs and forums we came across an interesting post on GodLikeProductions.com. One in which the poster with uncanny accuracy called the big drop on October 9th, attributing his prediction to a ‘pattern’.
The post reads:
THE DOW WILL TAKE A DIVE AT 3:08 PM EST. SYSTEMATIC PATTERN OF NON INVESTOR CASH INFUSION SOLVED.
Trust me there is a pattern here.
Tune in at 3:08 and BEH@LD. Posted at 12:51PM on Oct. 9th
You can see it and the thread of the post here: GodLikeProductions
It’s interesting to note, shortly after 3:00 the market indeed began to dive,closing at -654
It’s not just the blogs suggesting that this may be a form of financial terrorism
Jim Cramer of CNN’s Mad Money also has suggested that this needs to be investigated.
Cramer suggests the damage being done to stocks through short selling, where Wall Street’s most legendary institutions are losing value at alarming rates, could be the work of financial terrorism.
Cramer’s been talking to the short sellers he knows, and that’s the theory they’ve been putting forward. His sources said that it’s doubtful that the market’s traditional short sellers are behind the negative action we’ve seen lately. So there is the possibility that someone else has been trying to wreak havoc in the markets rather than just profit from the problems of Goldman Sachs.
Cramer, who was merely relaying what he heard, did say that, given the fact that the U.S. is in a “financial nationally emergency,” the “financial terrorism thing, to me, has to be put on the table just because the regular short sellers are not doing this.”
The Mad Money host urged the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority, which just banned short selling in financial stocks and now requires stricter disclosure from short sellers, to find out who’s on the other side of these trades.
And there is more…
First is an article by Michael Webster that appeared on Right Side News, last month.
Financial Terrorism on Wall Street?
U.S. government law enforcement agencies including the SEC, FBI and DOJ are on alert and are believed investigating terror and other related short selling illegal manipulation of the market place.
It was reported that between August 26 and September 11, 2001, groups of speculators, including Middle Eastern country investors, some reported connected to terrorist such as Al Qaeda and the Ben Laden family, these groups were believed connected to predicting the demise of certain airline and buildings including the New York Trade Center. Still others were identified by the American Securities and Exchange Commission as Israeli citizens, who sold “short” a list of 38 stocks that could reasonably be expected to fall in value as a result of the pending 911 attacks. According to the reports these speculators operated out of the Toronto, Canada and Frankfurt, Germany, stock exchanges and their profits were specifically stated to be huge.
Apparently none of the suspicious transactions could be traced to Bin Laden because this news item quietly dropped from sight, leaving many people wondering if it tracked back to American firms or intelligence agencies
The feds have seen a possible similar trend operating on Wall Street recently and no end to the panic selling on Wall Street without government intervention. U.S. corporate regulator, the SEC, is seeking to ease the terror by implementing emergency rules relating to short selling.
This possible action will be stronger than the recent use of the emergency powers that the SEC invoked in July to slap a temporary ban on “naked” shorting of 19 companies, including the mortgage insurers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and a number of major investment banks and commercial banks. The new aim will be to stop “unlawful manipulation” of American companies and their stock and to hopefully help to maintain orderly markets.
And this article by Joe Besecker of Emerald Asset Management Company.
Terror Attack on US Financials? Details of SEC Short Ban.
The following is excerpted from that article, referencing the musings of Mr. Besecker:
“He [Joe Besecker] raised an intriguing issue: None of the many hedgies he knew were pressing their bets recently. The bear raids on the banks and brokers were NOT a case of piling on by US based hedge funds. And from what he was seeing and hearing about in terms of order flow, the vast majority of the financial short selling the past week or so were being done overseas. It appears that the lion’s share of shorting was coming out of overseas bourses such as London and Dubai.It may not be a coincidence that the financial short selling ban is both here and in London.
Then there is another coincidence: The huge increase in shorting of the financials occurred on the anniversary of 9/11. And on top of that, the same institutions attacked on 9/11/01 were the ones suffering in recent days.
Joe asked the question: Is anyone investigating whether this is a case of financial terrorism?
So is it possible that the stock market is the victim of economic terrorism? Possible yes, plausible…? That remains to be seen.
What is certain is that it should be looked into if for no other reason than to rule it out.
You have got to be kidding me. Some nut job on a conspiracy site gets lucky and you call it “Economic Terrorism “!
It is all too possible. Think of all the PetroDollars flooding the Middle East banks. Add to that some Anti-American Angst and a learned group of financial traders – bingo! You have an opportunity to not only screw with the US economy, but also make some more money in the process.
What is interesting is not that people have started asking the question but that it has taken people so long to ask it.
The people who desire our downfall use every weapon (including cash, that indirectly we gave them for oil purchased) against us. Our Government still buys oil from Iran, why?
The notion that if we squeeze them too hard economically they will hurt us, is a flawed argument, wake up and smell the coffee guys!
I was wondering why this article on my website was getting traffic http://selil.com/?p=90 titled “Economic Collapse”. it was written in November of last year and was meant to look how systems theory could be used against unprepared economists. Traffic to that article over the last few days has climbed.
Manipulation of the stock market is a given. That is basically what the government is trying to do with the bail out funds. The “super empowered individuals” identified by Thomas Friedman in “The Lexus and the Olive Tree” with large amounts of capital (Buffet?) can artificially create dips. Recently a hoaxster did this using CNN to say Steve Jobs of Apple was dying of a heart attack causing the single largest volume and point swing on Apples stock ever.
There are a variety of other relevant cases but in the end why would anybody want to do it? What would be gained in the highly interlinked markets by an entity (individual or nation state)?
A nutjob getting lucky? Define that please. I agree too, why so long to ask the question? I am re-rereading “Unrestricted Warfare” written by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, I quote:
“…Even a quasi-world power like China already has the power to jolt the world economy just by changing its own economic policies. If China were a selfish country, and had gone back on its word in 1998 and let the Renminbi lose value, no doubt this would have added to the misfortunes of the economies of Asia. It would also have induced a cataclysm in the world’s capital markets, with the result that even the world’s number one debtor nation, a country which relies on the inflow of foreign capital to support its economic prosperity, the United States, would definitely have suffered heavy economic losses. Such an outcome would certainly be better than a military strike…” (page 195)
Now if a couple field grade officers in China thought through this potential scenario 10 years ago, why does it seem outlandish and kooky to consider there could be other malcontents with the means to operationalise such a scheme?
Sounds like a possibility.
Given that the 1987 crash was suspected terrorism and would have been much worse if Robert Phillips Hassen hadn’t been caught as a traitor. I’m surprised the connection it is so rarely mentioned. They always come back to complete the act if the first attempt is not as successfull as they planned. A very patient group. And we are ostrichs with our head in the sand pretending.
We can’t fix what we don’t want to see.
To pooh-pooh the notion that terrorism (or more broadly hostile factions) could be involved, shows a disturbing tendency to discount the commitment and depth of America’s haters. While I don’t believe this crisis was caused by outsiders, well placed financial operators could certainly exacerbate the problem by purposely countering the efforts to calm the situation. An economic collapse of USA would be a dream come true for our enemies, and a disaster for the freedom loving world. In spite of America’s faults and flaws, without us, the powers of China and Russia would have no check. Then you’d see real strife and crisis in the world.
This is serious buisness!
Perhaps foreign governments are attempting to influence the US election. Depress the stock market and people will demand change.
But waves of selling at 3pm could be just that people are pulling money out of their 401K stock funds and seeking safer investments.
I read somewhere that mutual funds do their trading toward the end of the day when they figure out the day’s net inflow/outflow.
Ok. Let another theory be in addition to this one. The terrorist world is in support for Obama being president. If the economy is going down they know by historical account the party in control of the presidency will change hands. Thus selling off for them had a two fold advantage. Though their oil precises will only temporarily going down. I’m sure right after the election that oil price will go right back up so they can make profits.
It could be enemies of America. It could also be people that are just trying to create an environment favorable to turn sentiment enough to influence an election. There is a billionaire in charge of a major PAC that has said he would spend every cent of his money to get a Democrat in the White House. People like this have the power to mobilize enough money to cause a roller coaster effect within the market. If this were true it could be one of the most unconscionable acts in our history. To bring economic pain and suffering to millions of people just to win an election. What is truely scary is that we have reached a point in time that we could believe some people are capable of attempting it.
Listen yeah it is easy to jump up and say this is a nut job theory but do you believe it is wise to just brush it off the table. In 2000 alot of people would have said 911 was a nut job idea but it happened. Al Qaeda said they would destroy us from within and if you didnt know there backers are some of the most wealthy people in the world who do have the means to do such a thing. Dont be silly and just live inside your box think outside of it because thats what they are doing.
I doubt this is financial terrorism. I do however suspect there are players out there trying to affect our political system & especially the presidential elections, by manipulating our economic system to make capitalism look bad!
Think Soros & his manipulations that almost bankrupted one or two European nations until they took actions & realized what someone was up to!
Now I also doubt Soros would be foolish enough to try such a despicable action a second time. After all, he was tried & convicted of a crime in Europe, paid fines, & ended up persona non grata in many European financial communities.
Then again, if it worked once & all of the culprits were only caught by luck, perhaps they now feel they have perfected this tactic? Based on the chaos & pain that has been inflicted, I would hate to be anyone who may be behind such a despicable tactic. Here in America, they may find themselves and any & all of their allies being destroyed financially, politically, and personally.
Of course if this was concocted by someone for personal financial &/or political reward, they would deserve to have the full force of the justice system to fall down on them like a boulder, now wouldn’t they? And such full force should be felt by any & all involved, no matter how trivial the connection may be!!
You know, a few weeks ago, I thought this was nonsense. But, I’ve just watched the stock market do some crazy last minute things over the past two weeks, so the idea is no longer crazy to me. Nor is it to others — go to marketwatch.com and read the comments about today’s last minute swing on the Dow. Lots of people are scratching their heads. I think it would be unwise to dismiss ANY possibility right now.