September 19, 2007
Recently several major European multinationals have de-listed, or announced that they will de-list, from the NYSE. These companies have stated reasons such as the expense of complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, but this legislation took effect five years ago.
The timing of these companies' announcements is curious in that they came soon after the SEC foolishly ended the uptick requirement for initiating short sales, from all appearances in collaboration with powerful Wall Street interests that work at cross purposes to the interests of the average retail American investor.
At the same time, the SEC twiddles its collective thumbs as naked short selling continues to decimate companies' market cap, also in apparent collaboration with those same Wall Street interests.
Is the SEC completely incapable of connecting the dots in these multinational companies' abandonment of our stock market? Apparently so.
It is way past time for the SEC to admit that the agency is in non-compliance with the 1934 Securities Exchange Act and as such is subject both to civil and criminal prosecution.