Comments on: Economic Terrorism – Is The Stock Market Being Manipulated?

By: Rayelle

Rayelle — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:20:43 +0000

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.

By: Rubicon

Rubicon — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 07:41:29 +0000

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!!

By: thataboy

thataboy — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:57:22 +0000

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.

By: Tarmangani

Tarmangani — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 05:54:39 +0000

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.

By: Boston Lobster

Boston Lobster — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:31:55 +0000

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.

By: Notable Headlines, October 17, 2008 : Christian and American

Notable Headlines, October 17, 2008 : Christian and American — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:16:11 +0000

[...] [...]

By: PetRock235

PetRock235 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:22:57 +0000

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.

By: Ishtahota

Ishtahota — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:26:43 +0000

This is serious buisness!

By: DJ

DJ — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:23:40 +0000

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.

By: Bfm

Bfm — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:51:44 +0000

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.

By: Nate Hale

Nate Hale — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 05:48:27 +0000

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?

By: Selil

Selil — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 05:09:55 +0000

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)?

By: Scott Trow

Scott Trow — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:16:09 +0000

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!

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:28:20 +0000

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.

By: EAT

EAT — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:20:07 +0000

You have got to be kidding me. Some nut job on a conspiracy site gets lucky and you call it “Economic Terrorism “!