Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson said that “We allege that customers paid for items they never received. The internet should not be a safe harbor for criminals.”
Yet every day, six billion dollars worth of shares are purchased in companies in the US stock market, and not delivered. Someone signs on to their brokerage account, or more accurately, millions of someones sign on, and pay for shares in companies that their broker doesn’t deliver. In some cases, those shares are never delivered, creating what is essentially a flood of counterfeit shares in publicly traded companies, harming both investors and the companies themselves.
In the next few weeks, the Oklahoma Legislature will vote on a landmark bill that could serve as the model for stock market reform efforts nationwide. It has been written to withstand the legal assault that Wall Street has unleashed on other legislation introduced in other states. The measure, SB979, has already passed the Senate and will come up for a vote in the House sometime in the next few weeks.
This issue is NOT as much about Wall Street screwing investors as it is about the loss of potential jobs, local and state tax revenue lost, citizens’ investment funds stolen, and retirement funds decimated. It’s about hedge fund managers building hockey rinks in their backyards while the rest of the country struggles just to make ends meet. It’s about CEOs of the major brokerage firms getting bonuses amounting to tens of millions of dollars a year while small startup companies are forced into bankruptcy before they even have a chance to see if they can flourish on their own merit.
With SB979, Oklahoma has the opportunity to set the standard for honesty and integrity in our stock market, to pass a law protecting investors and publicly traded companies that could become the model for every state in the Union. We can send a clear message to the rich and powerful that we’re sick and tired of a corrupt market, that we’re sick and tired of the rich getting richer while the rest of us get screwed.
But understand this: we as citizens have to speak out. Over the next couple of weeks, lobbyists and attorneys for the securities industry will swoop down on our legislators in Oklahoma, and Wall Street will flex their muscles and flash their money in an attempt to convince our elected officials that what’s good for Wall Street is good for Main Street.
This is a call to arms for every citizen in Oklahoma, and to everyone who owns stock in an Oklahoma-based company, a chance for us to make a difference not only in our own state, but for all of America. It’s not that often that we as a people can make a major difference simply by speaking out for what is right. We need to write letters to the editors of every newspaper in Oklahoma, and urge them to support SB969. If you are not in Oklahoma, encourage your own state legislators to follow suit and enact similar legislation returning honesty and integrity to our financial markets.
We have to spread the word, to call, write or email our legislators and tell them to do what’s right for all Americans, and not just for the privileged and the powerful. We have to let them know that WE ARE BEHIND THEM! Make them understand that in the end, they have to answer NOT to the money machine that controls our financial markets and our federal government, but to their constituents, and ultimately, to their own conscience.
To find out who you can contact to encourage Oklahoma House members to vote YES on SB979, go to:
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