The Selling of America

July 31, 2010 (FinancialWire) (Via Investrend Forums Syndicate) (By Mark Faulk) -- Editor's note: Recall when Bear Stearns began to fall apart at the seams in March of 2008, triggering the SEC's first emergency weekend meeting in over 30 years. Over the next few months, all of America, in fact, the entire world, watched in trepidation as our financial markets unraveled like a slow motion train wreck, one that the vast majority of Americans had been oblivious to until it was too late. Over the next few months, the train wreck began to pick up speed, prompting SEC chairman Christopher Cox to invoke a one-month ban on July 15, 2008 against naked short selling in 19 battered financial stocks, including Goldman Sachs GS, Morgan Stanley MS, Citigroup C, Lehman Brothers LEHMQ, Credit Suisse CS, Merrill Lynch (DOA, as in dead on arrival), Bank of America BAC, J.P. Morgan Chase JPM, Fannie Mae FNM, and Freddie Mac FRE. The emergency rule, designed to eliminate the illegal downward manipulation of those companies' stock prices, stated that no one could short sell stock in those companies unless they had "borrowed or arranged to borrow the security" and that they settle the trade on the required settlement date. Of course, as usual, even that rule imposed absolutely no penalties for anyone who violated the rule.

Nothing happens in a vacuum, and, with all things being connected in one way or another, we offer this recent submission from Mark Faulk:

I feel like I should have something relevant to contribute to the discourse about the continued demise of America, but in all honesty, like most Americans, I'm stunned and sickened by the entire disgusting display of partisan politics going on in Washington. I keep thinking that somewhere between the simplistic "we're all going to die" catchphrases and the convoluted discourse espoused by the talking heads on television and in print, there lies a rational explanation of the current debt crisis.

Congressional extremists on the Far Right, funded into office by the richest, most powerful people in the world, have displayed an utter disregard for our country's citizens. The eagerness with which they are hell bent on destroying social security under false pretenses, and throwing Medicare and Medicaid into the fires of greed while they're at it, is way beyond simply cheap politics, it is reprehensible and immoral.

I keep wondering if the people who elected them, the Tea Party masses that voted these nutcases into office, are beginning to feel uncomfortable as their chosen champions of small government and big freedoms show their true colors. And believe me, those colors are not red, white, and blue, and their allegiance is not to America. They have sold their souls, and their country, for money, and their only loyalties lie with the overlords who wrote the checks that put them in office.

The Judases on the Extreme Right are determined to destroy the country for a few pieces of gold, but Obama carries his own share of the blame as well. Not because he didn't compromise enough, but because he gave up too much, too early. Every skilled negotiator knows that the debate begins from extreme, even unreasonable opposite viewpoints and demands, with each party working towards an acceptable solution in the middle. All political decisions in Washington are ultimately acts of compromise, but the President erred in beginning negotiations from the center, while the extremists, perceiving the President's willingness to compromise as a show of weakness (and rightfully so) dug in their heels from the very start.

Every continued compromise by the President and the Democrats does nothing to move the loonies towards a rational agreement; on the contrary, it empowers them even more. They have their marching orders, and it's a winner take all mentality that has forced (unnecessarily, in this writer's opinion) Obama to abandon almost every single promise he made to those who elected them. He is so busy trying to forge a deal at any cost that he has given up the very sense of empassioned morality that put him in office.

I can't help but wonder what President Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, or even Bill Clinton for that matter, would do in this situation. At what point does our current President draw a clear line in the sand, and say, "Enough is enough." He has already given up way too much in this war for the heart and soul of America, and history, especially recent history, has shown that when the rich get the upper hand, the rest us pay the price for decades to come.

I fear that it's too late for Obama and the Democrats to make a stand to protect social security and the other programs that in many cases are the only safety nets for those who are locked in a very real and in some cases dire struggle just to survive. It's tragic and something we will feel the consequences of, except of course those who are getting richer on the backs of the poor, the sick, and the elderly. My only hope is that Obama will draw a line when it comes to forcing those living in their gilded mansions in gated country club and golf course communities to at least shoulder their fair share of the burden.

Even if that is the case, and even if the rich end up having to dig into their obscene banks accounts, trust funds, and offshore accounts to help pay for necessary services that give our country a modicum of dignity when it comes to caring for our citizens in need, it will take years, or even decades to recoup what has been given away as tax breaks to the rich in the name of compromise.

Maybe we need to turn the Statue of Liberty around to face our own country, lest we forget that the inscription that offered centuries of immigrants hope should apply to our own citizens as well. How we treat our own tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe free is ultimately what will determine America's place in world history.

And that, even in the midst of political madness, is the Faulking Truth.

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Mark Faulk, author of "The Naked Truth: Investing in the Stock Play of a Lifetime", (http://www.thenakedtruthbook.com/) and editor of The Faulking Truth (http://www.faulkingtruth.com/ has written over 150 articles on the topic of financial reform and naked short selling since 2004, and has logged hundreds of hours in radio and television interviews. For over five years, he and a small group of dedicated activists have been educating America about the imminent danger of allowing rampant fraud to continue. In his very first article on The Faulking Truth website on March 19, 2004, he coined the phrase "financial terrorism", which has come to epitomize the culture of greed that dominates Wall Street. His articles have been reprinted or excerpted in numerous major publications, including The Huffington Post and Financial Wire, and financial journals such as the prestigious Capco Journal of Financial Transformation. In the fall of 2009, he completed a major documentary about financial fraud.

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This and all original content authored by Mark Faulk are subject to proprietary trademark, intellectual property and copyright Laws. Copyright (C), Mark Faulk; All rights reserved.

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