American International Group, Inc. (AIG)

[martingale]

You make some fine points about the liquidity issue that short sales are supposed to provide. They provide no liquidity actually when they hammer a stock down in unison. They pocket the difference and walk and take the common shareholders money with them. I feel no sympathy for hedge funds whatsoever and wished they would be heavily regulated or simply put out of business alltogether. It is the province of the ultra-rich by and large and smart financial sharks. I also think they were in part behind the recent oil spikes we have seen with their endless speculating they were doing.

I do disagree with your points on the IRS as I recently read
an article that most of their audits were targeting those with incomes above $150-300,000 per year. That is where the abuses often take place. I once went thru an audit and had to pay an extra $89 after 5 hours of their time or perhaps more behind closed doors. It was not worth the bother but what triggered it was buying 3 homes in the space of one year.