Something really strange but not surprising in hindsight, happened towards the end of George Bush’s term in office. That is, just prior to the stock market crash. And not unrelated at all to the way the advent of the Internet and electronic money transfers converged in a suspect manner, with the push by Wall Street to then pressure the masses of American people to toss their life savings in huge numbers, into the stock market. A massive participation that could now be readily negotiated with the tools of the Internet on hand.
And that unusual move by the Bush administration, was the abolition of the Uptick Rule – a stock market regulation that had been around for seventy years. And was in fact inextricably linked to the measure put in place to lift this country out of the economic disaster of the stock market crash of ’29 and the ensuing Great Depression. And the current aforementioned abolition of which led to, you guessed it. And the rest is history, that we’re dealing with now.
What the Uptick Rule outlawed, was the short selling and insider flash trading that Sandra Mohr’s investigative documentary Stock Shock, probes vigorously in relation to the market scam plaguing Sirius XM Satellite radio. This incisive inquiry breaks down some of the nuts and bolts of that convoluted money fraud, which enabled stockbrokers to buy and sell stocks without permission or authorization, in many cases stocks that didn’t even exist. And fleecing a million grassroots investors, many of whom counted themselves as satellite radio cult junkies. And then handing the company stock over to a few corporate scammers privatizing pay radio, and taking it over essentially for free.
What Mohr uncovered about this ‘zombie stock’ scam linked to pay radio, is essentially this. The short sellers would unlawfully ‘borrow’ stock that didn’t belong to them, float false rumors about the radio company’s financial failure throughout a cooperative commercial media, and then buy back cheap and return the now devalued borrowed shares, during the artificially induced panic selling.
In this way, billions of stocks were sold that never existed, under cover of the lightning speed of the Internet. And the filmmaker further unravels a sinister incestuous relationship between Wall Street and the government, along with the media and their investor advertising interests, as well as national and global organized crime. This, while muckrakers, including a stunned Wall Street area cabbie privy to broker conversations in his cab, out these conspirators on camera, some whistleblowers assuming aliases after receiving death threats.
And the effects of this Wall Street type of fraud have been far reaching, wiping out thousands of companies and millions of jobs. Also on the heels now of this economic catastrophe and soon to hit theaters, are Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, and Oliver Stone’s sequel to Wall Street, currently in production. Stock Shock’s movie poster has also taken over Times Square recently, with a jumbotron image on the Reuters Board, of Uncle Sam strapped into an electric chair. A prophetic image indeed, of how the sparks would fly.
Stock Shock is out on DVD, and available at: Stockshockmovie.com.
Mohr Productions
Unrated
3 stars