Given the recent turmoil in the financial markets, it’s a bit hard to keep up with the morality plays and the villains.
After the Enronesque fall of Bear Stearns, the villains of the moment were the two Bear Stearns executives who were indicted for not throwing in the towel timely.
Then, over the past several weeks, speculators who facilitate markets to hedge energy costs became targets of the demagogues.
And now this week, with the demise of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox issued an emergency order attempting to curtail naked short-sellers of the stock of the embattled government sponsored entities and also the stocks of Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.
What on earth is Christopher Cox, a supposedly sophisticated securities lawyer, doing issuing orders that hinder the efficient functioning of markets?