Quote:
Originally Posted by Squirtit
Links please.
I posted links. Please do the same.
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"The Working Group on Financial Markets (also, President's Working Group on Financial Markets, the Working Group, and colloquially the Plunge Protection Team) was created by Executive Order 12631,[1] signed on March 18, 1988 by United States President Ronald Reagan."
"Plunge Protection Team" was originally the headline for an article in The Washington Post on February 23, 1997,[2] and has since become a colloquial term used by some mainstream publications to refer to the Working Group.[3][4] Initially, the term was used to express the opinion that the Working Group was being used to prop up the markets during downturns.[5][6] Financial writers for British newspapers The Observer and The Daily Telegraph, along with U.S. Congressman Ron Paul and writers Kevin Phillips (who claims “no personal firsthand knowledge” and is “not interested in becoming a conspiracy investigator”)[7] and John Crudele,[8] have charged the Working Group with going beyond their legal mandate. Claims about the Working Group, which are labeled conspiracy theories by some writers, generally include that it is an orchestrated mechanism that attempts to manipulate U.S. stock markets in the event of a market crash by using government funds to buy stocks, or other instruments such as stock index futures—acts which are forbidden by law. In August 2005, Sprott Asset Management released a report that argued that there is little doubt that the PPT intervened to protect the stock market.[9
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working...ancial_Markets
HEY, HANK, LET'S SIT DOWN AND CHAT ABOUT THINGS
The President's Working Group has been nicknamed the Plunge Protection Team. And that organization's antics crossed a lot of Wall Street people's minds on Aug. 1 - a week ago yesterday - when the Dow Jones industrial average made a suspicious 150-point gain in the final 20 minutes of trading.
To refresh your memory, the stock market had been getting drubbed in the days before that rally mainly because of worries over subprime mortgage delinquencies and the effect these problems would have on Wall Street and the economy as a whole.
The day after the mysterious 150-point gain, The Wall Street Journal - which is soon to be the kin of this newspaper - headlined the Dow's rise as "out of nowhere."
"Wall Street traders and analysts couldn't cite a specific catalyst for the quick rally, although a wave of pre-placed electronic orders to buy and an earlier pullback in crude oil prices seemed to help," the paper said.
Sure enough, those electronic orders first came from Goldman Sachs (where Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson had been chairman) and was quickly followed by orders to buy stock index futures contracts from Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...Igi0TQU5WWSw4M
Bush convenes Plunge Protection Team
On Friday, Mr Bush convened the so-called Plunge Protection Team for its first known meeting in the Oval Office. The black arts unit - officially the President's Working Group on Financial Markets - was created after the 1987 crash."
"It appears to have powers to support the markets in a crisis with a host of instruments, mostly by through buying futures contracts on the stock indexes (DOW, S&P 500, NASDAQ and Russell) and key credit levers. And it has the means to fry "short" traders in the hottest of oils.
The team is led by Treasury chief Hank Paulson, ex-Goldman Sachs, a man with a nose for market psychology, and includes Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and the key exchange regulators."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/c...tion-Team.html
Time for Fed to disprove PPT conspiracy theory
Commentary: Analyst charges that government is manipulating markets
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The massive stock-market rally in the past nine months is mostly due to secret government buying of stock-index futures, a respected stock-market analyst said Tuesday.
Charles Biderman, chief executive of TrimTabs Investment Research, is the latest and most credible person to charge that the Federal Reserve and the Treasury (in league with top Wall Street firms) is rigging the stock market on a daily basis.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tim...ory-2010-01-05