While the United states Armed Forces (private mercenaries) are stationed at 737 bases, in 130 nations around the world, defending “all freedom-loving people everywhere in the world,” Henry M. Paulson, Jr., secretary of the treasury, in a rare evening meeting, in the office of speaker Nancy Pelosi, informs CONgressional leaders that “we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.”

       [added 5/25/2021] Thanks to Freedom’s Phoenix for this entry. 

       Christopher Cox, Esq., Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission issues SEC Release Number 34-58592, ordering that “short selling” (the practice of borrowing a stock, selling it, repurchasing it and an anticipated lower price, and returning them to the original owner by a specified time) of 799 listed stocks, be suspended for two weeks.

       NOTES:

• As an attorney (Officer of the Court) Cox was ineligible to serve in two branches of government at the same time, according to Article I, Section 6 [Clause 2].
• Short selling is of great benefit to investors as it allows them to profit on negative information. , which allows profits to be made from negative information.  It is a common practice in many business sectors, and not much different from the farmer who sells a futures contract for what he has not planted yet.  Furthermore, no amount of short selling can depress the price of a stock over the long term, if the corporation’s underlying health is better than the negative appraisal assessed by speculators; in this case speculators trading on false negative assumptions would lose substantially.

       Question: Is Cox embarrassed because short sellers have done a better job at detecting fraud, Questionable accounting, and other management misbehaviors, than his own agency, which failed to catch WorldCom, Enron, Tyco, and Bernie Madoff (with your money)?

       [added 5/25/2021] Thanks to Freedom’s Phoenix for this entry.