Did the White House Rig the Stock Market?

The Plunge Protection Team

I'm sure there's some editor at U.S. News wondering why anyone would post to an op-ed piece that's over six months old. Well, after this week's (Mar 3, 2008) heavy handed manipulation, no one is dismissing the so called "invisible hand" anymore.

The PPT is actually not much of a secret. As James noted, the PWG or "WGFM" was created by President Regan after the 1987 market crash. The executive order creating the WGFM is still available through our nation archives, here: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12631.html.

What is secret, is just about everything they do. What, how, when. FOIA requests from the mainstream media as well as at least one presidential candidate have been ignored or side stepped.

What should be important to all of us is that our stock markets are no longer based on financial or economic fundamentals, but are always subject to WGFM "tweaking". You can see it in this week's index moves -- unnatural, almost puppet-like, given the economic news and the ability of investors to rally in such volumes. You'll see it in the future.

It's not all that bad. No one ever wants to see a return to the 1987 crash, or the great crash of 1929. Yet, it should make all of us uneasy investing. The markets will move naturally when they're not moving much. But if the news too good, or too bad, the PPT will move in. Back in the late 1990's a Washington Post article discussed the group's concern over a potential bubble, but decided to do nothing. The result was the dot com boom-bust of 2000. That mistake reportedly won't be repeated. Neither will a bust.

If you're in the market, bet carefully. There's an invisible hand at work. One that isn't necessarily working in your favor.

Jack Heismann

Jack Heismann of PA @ Mar 07, 2008 23:27:20 PM