By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 6, 2016
President Obama Nominating Mary Jo White for Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission,
January 24, 2013
Today marks the sixth anniversary of the confidence-draining “Flash Crash” of May 6, 2010 when the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly plunged 998 points, with hundreds of stocks momentarily losing 60 percent or more of their share price.
The public was promised a credible investigation. It never materialized because, for one thing, there was no Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) to enable regulators to pinpoint exactly which securities firms were gaming the system. The public was then promised a Consolidated Audit Trail. But six long years and many smaller Flash Crashes later, there is still no Consolidated Audit Trail.
The public was also promised an in-depth investigation by Congress into the role that high frequency trading is playing in our markets. That hasn’t happened either. Instead, the stock exchanges are still deeply in bed with the high frequency traders.
As for the Securities and Exchange Commission, President Obama saw fit to nominate and secure the Senate Confirmation of a partner of a Wall Street powerhouse law firm, Mary Jo White, to sit atop the SEC. The impact of that has been another major source of the public losing confidence in U.S. markets.
Below, we provide a small sampling of our coverage of the hubris of Congress and regulators and the Obama administration since the Flash Crash of May 6, 2010:
The May 6 Stock Crash Revisited
Flash Crash Report Raises Flags on Quasi Stock Exchanges Inside Wall Street Firms
Shhh. Don’t Wake Congress. Let Them Sleep Through the Next Wall Street Crash
Did Small Investors Get Fleeced in the 1089-Point Plunge on August 24?
This One Photo Captures Why Americans Can’t Win Against Wall Street
If the New York Stock Exchange is a “High-Frequency Brothel” then the SEC is its Pimp
Congressional Hearing Shows Loss of Public Confidence in Markets
