Maverick: Reuters; "The Alpine nation's bankers got a jolt last week after Credit Suisse agreed to plead guilty to helping wealthy Americans evade taxes and pay a fine of $2.6 billion, more than double the amount it had set aside for the purpose."
You were saying that Barclays and the Swiss Banks were recently found tied to dark shorting. With the Credit Suisse recently fined so heavily (though a drop in the bucket on their scale probably) maybe there is a change in the attitudes toward those banks. They have been able to do whatever they want for a long time now, it would seem.
I know someone that worked at Barclays for a while. He tells me he often heard the phrase, "Fk the street". I am not certain he heard it from the brokers or just in the general sector, but he left disgusted with what he learned about things being rigged.
I don't understand how the US could go to such great lengths to monitor literally every phone call and email that Americans make, in part to ensure that there is no $ support to unfriendlies, but there is still no requirement that every share traded in the stock market have a name on it. This is what allows dark shorting, isn't it?