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Former SEC Director Admits The Truth: The Market Is Rigged
For more than a decade, John Ramsay kept his mouth shut about how rigged the US equity market was.
As SEC Director of Trading & Markets, Ramsay tells Bloomberg her "had red tape over his mouth," but now he is "uncorked."
“I’ve been able to find my voice on these issues in a way I couldn’t have done when I was in the government, because you’re always limited by internal politics and not wanting to get too far out in front of the agency,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been a little bit uncorked.”
Having joined Brad Katayama's IEX Group (infamous for the Flash Boys' exposure), Ramsay is calling out the “convoluted” and "illogical" pricing rules of major stock exchanges and compared the $25 trillion U.S. stock market’s structure to the Death Star of "Star Wars."
It will be hard for current regulators to shrug off Ramsay's comments,
“He’s a guy who accomplished a lot and doesn’t have anything to prove,” said James Burns, who worked with Ramsay at the SEC and is now a partner at the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.
Ramsay helped the SEC hammer out the post-crisis Volcker Rule, which bans government-insured banks from gambling with depositors’ money. The rule has an exemption -- it allows banks to continue “making markets,” or standing ready to buy or sell stocks and bonds from customers. Financial regulators initially clashed over that exemption, with banking agencies fretting that the language would open loopholes for Wall Street to exploit.
Ramsay helped ease the tension with clear language and humor, bank regulators said. Ramsay was the voice at the table “making us understand how market making is done, and what kind of parameters are around it,” said Scott Alvarez, the Federal Reserve’s general counsel.
And so when he uncorks a nasty reality check on the market, perhaps it is time to listen...
“The current market ecosystem is not sustainable, and significant changes are coming one way or another,” Ramsay said in a speech delivered at a New York technology conference in September.
Ramsay said his opinions grew more critical in recent years as he watched the market fragment into 11 public exchanges and more than 40 less-regulated private venues such as dark pools.
Trading became more complex and prone to technological malfunctions in the face of rules that were supposed to boost competition and create new choices for investors, he said.
He outlined how the market lost its way: conflicts of interest among brokers, a two-tier system favoring the speediest and a general sense that today’s rules have been crafted to the benefit of insiders.
* * *
Is "crafted for the benefit of insiders" not the very definition of a rigged game?
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We all know this. Just tell us when the staggering drunk,"economy", is going to be hit by the semi.
Are there nailguns for 3/8" wire 9" timber spikes? Or will he have to use a 5lb hand sledge?
perhaps it will be a car crash for reasons of symbolization.
He looks like a child rapist. He must be an insider.
If it was only the markets....
.
Its all rigged. Pick a topic? - Education? rigged. Feminist movement? rigged. Vaccines? rigged. Economy? rigged. Housing market? rigged. Oil prices? rigged. Electricity? rigged. Government? rigged. Candidates? rigged. Politics? rigged. Drug company's? rigged. Etc? rigged.
.
Well at least let us eat in fuckin peace...Food? rigged. Can i have a glass of water at least? Sure, but its rigged.
We all wind up eventually at the same place...its just, which rotten slice first did you bite into?
.
Im baked.
As a staunch liberal and advocate for the truth and nothing but the truth, I strongly believe this guy is lying through his teeth because he no longer works for the government.
Who are you Domestic Extremists gonna believe, this lying traitor or the government that never ever lies to its citizens?
Another "former" whatever who turns into a tough guy after he's no longer in a position to do anything about it.
Fuck you, asshole. You had your shot. Now we print to infinity and you're going to sit there and fucking watch it happen, just like the rest of us.
Did I say "dickhead"? No? OK, he's a dickhead, too. There. Now I feel better.
This Jew is telling on his Jew friends?
He would be dead in 5 minutes.
He isn't telling us anything we didn't already know.
Aquaman admits in press release, "Water is wet."
I've got a Redpill friend, Marine, seriously clued in ... and he's asking me my opinion about buying some stawks...he's ready to go all in. F'in facepalm.
Sadly though, it might be the rational choice.
Great! Thanks for admitting that. Can I have all the wealth back I was cheated out of by Banksters rigging the system?
You have to earn it back... bend over.
good of him to speak up, when he is completely irrelevant.
so now it's ok to do your job when you can't-a fucking puke looking asscunt. hope you are reading these comments, because it is people like you that got this country where it is.
personally, your ilk should be taken out behind the woodshed and __________...
Another "former" whatever who turns into a tough guy after he's no longer in a position to do anything about it.
His name is on the Guillotine list. He knows it and he is now attempting to save it..or is it his head that he is trying to save?
Far too little. Much too late.
There's something a bit fishy about you.
Are you for real?????
Life is like a shit sandwich.
The more 'bread' you have, the less shit you have to eat.
+1000
So very true ! that is why I always mention that we all live in massive illusions ! because we do. Everything you mentioned is an illusion and there are many more.
But you can avoid them if you know how ?
At least professional sports is pure
MOUHAHAHAHAHHA
.....
sorry.
Can't help myself . . . I'm imagining a Hilti gun with a 12ga load.
Any of the above, but I would have thought it'd happen sometime around last September when he made this speech!
Not that I'm aware of, the 'coil' of spikes would be a problem I think. A baby sledge might do it...
~"Are there nailguns for 3/8" wire 9" timber spikes? Or will he have to use a 5lb hand sledge?"~
My thoughts were exactly along those lines. I thought to myself,
"This guy better be cafeful as he might run into a nailgun or something."
<== watched midget porn
<== never watched midget porn
Worked out a deal with the porn sites to get a cut per click?
Midget porn should be half off
Short orgasms are only half as good as long orgasms.
Love midget porn.
Nothing beats watching a 4 foot woman get cornholed with a dick 1/4 as tall as she is.
CAN YA HEAR ME NOW?
<-- Looks gay
<-- Looks straight
Looks uncomfortable and a bit odd.
Can't really judge a guy just on that. Books and covers may spring to mind.
He kept quiet for 10 years or so, but at least he finally said something.
Puts him a cut above those who are still lip-zipped.
You all think he is admitting the system is rigged... He is basically validating obama's trial balloon of a few weeks back .. Here come the executive orders to "FIX" Wall Street.. Obama is going to tie that milch cow down and let the FSA suckle her dry and many of you will clap if he is successful in using you against one another..
He looks asexual to me. There is a coldness about his eyes as if he would look through you if you ever met him. Aloof and analytical. No warmth compassionate vibe. A type that would be attracted to such a position without a hindrance of something as a conscience.
I can't understand his motivation for such a confession. Honestly, does he wish us to believe this was some sudden revelation that occured this morning?
Miffed
classic look of a pedo
gaydar with a twist going off
He said this in September?
I was thinking the same and it just now news, 6 months later? WTF, over...
been known for at least 10 years, only gotten worse and on steroids .
Off Topic: Was just on youtube listening to Lynard Skynard and the thought occured to me:
All these deaths in the music industry from the '50s on.......
were these people dying so others could collect the life insurance?
Just askin'........................................................
Not for the insurance but for their portfolio. i.e 'Elvis is worth more dead than alive'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP2BVPCmDrg
Didn't know the moons of Saturn even had the internet yet.
The markets will not implode in a death star like reaction until the US Dollar loses all or a portion of it's reserve currency status, it's status as printable wealth. It is, after all, this very dollar which props up the markets and keeps them alive with Liqudity. If anyone in the world begings to sense the dollar is losing it's printability, while maintaining it wealth value, then it all implodes. Let's accept that our printable dollar, that still is valued as a true store of wealth, is the market prop. I look for a dollar crisis, followed by total collapse of the fake markets.
More like Weimar style hyperinflation.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” — Oscar Wild
Jack Burton
In 2007 I met someone and we moved in together. So, obviously, I made a bunch of new friends.
In 2008, these new friends told me that they were taking some ‘computer’ lessons, in someone’s home/garage. They told me that they were paying about $4 thousand dollars, each, for these lessons. And they were promised jobs that they would be making about $40 thousand an year.
These were wonderful people. Most working class (babysitter, retail sales, and so on). Most Europeans.
So, when I heard about these courses I told my partner (and these new friends) that I was very worried, because $4 thousand dollars was lots of money for these people. That I was very skeptical. Very suspected of these teachers (set up).
Do you know what I heard back from my partner, and these new friends? “Don’t worry. These are good people. They are Jews.”
I kid you not! And these new friends were, mostly, Orthodox Christians.
Anyway, it’s 2015, and I no longer live with this partner, but I heard that they are all employed and doing great. One is making $92 thousand dollars a year. And bought a condo in Arlington, Va.
You are right absolutely right, dollar is a printable wealth.
And all Americans, as well as a large part of the world, depends on it.
When the dollar “this fake wealth” falls, it will be horrifying.
When people like you lift their fat ass from the couch.
Fucking imbeciles.
Markets rigged bitchez , you got it here first
Damn right... You need one of those HFT laser hookups to get the REAL porn microseconds before everyone else.
I'm sorry, did I miss something about this being "news" except for the name of the guy who said it.
SSDDJust Another Name.
"The Market Is Rigged"
No kidding. I'm speechless!
and so they lead us to the imf sdr, using brics along the way.
Bart Chilton got a haircut?
Chilton's love child and just as dumb
Speaking about Slimebag criminals...check out this hags latest act.:
http://12160.info/video/hillary-clinton-it-would-have-been-better-to-hav...
Harry Potter and the Selling of Souls
Grew nads AFTER leaving office. The trend continues.
These fuckers are some real studs once the payola stream dries up. Makes me appreciate Edward even more.
And you'll be seeing this full explanation on NBC nightly news at 6PM so all the idiots who didn't know can jump ship just in time.
So thats what "uncorked" looks like, go figure!
It won't help you, we know who you are, we saw what you did.
He's still an insider.
By not speaking up prior to being 'uncorked', he aided and abetted the destruction of America.
Widely attributed to Al Capone: "Its a racket. Those stock market guys are crooked."
He would know ;-)
Al Capone, huh? That's a low blow nmewn. I got Capone! (and then celebrated with a fine whiskey).
But he was right about those fucking stock market guys ;)
Yeah, he was right about that...lol.
The interesting thing about Al is, he did basically the same thing any .gov does. He stole from other people, did a little blackmail, strong armed some folks, smuggled, paid off & bribed those he had to, killed the ones he couldn't, paid "his employees well" and opened up some soup kitchens to feed the poor.
Interesting, yes?
Government has always hated the competition ;-)
If a guy walks up to you in the street, sticks a knife in your ribs and says 'give me your money or I'll fuck you up' it's called robbery.
If the government comes up to you and says 'give me your money or I'll fuck you up' it's called tax.
The only thing government cares about, regarding the individual, is how much tax can be extracted from the aforementioned individual.
You noticed that didn't you.
At long last, will people finally wake up to this...
Its one thing to know that Taxes are as guaranteed as Death, but fuck-sake! its time people understand the robbery it is.
I treat the IRS with the respect it deserves: one false move on its part and I'm ready to take full advantage.
But at the end of the day, the IRS is the collection agent for the FED. Its primary function is to assure wage earners DO NOT accumulate enough wealth to forgo the need for a wage. A Stroke of Criminal Genius it was placing this entity before the fruits of one's labor.
MAN! I'm sure their work is appreciated somewhere in hell at least.
lol...very true.
I don't know how old you are but I remember a raging debate about taxes being "voluntary".
That one is now over ;-)
nmewn, I see you have borrowed my serial downvote, I'd like it back please. I have several posts with no red on them..
Thank you.
Sorry, finders keepers ;-)
A serial down voter with no comment is an honor. You have perminantly riled someone and that is the acknowledgment. It's a form of ownership really though I'm sure not too many would see it that way.
Miffed
Yes, that is the acknowledgement of my ownership and yes, my superiority over them.
The silent junker hates that he/she is this way but still can't help themselves by showing their utter contempt for anything said by the target, fact or fiction, humorous or macabre, verifiable truth or well known lie...makes absolutely no difference...it denotes an extreme gnomish-like, back stabbing personality disorder.
So instead of standing on their own hind legs as any independent free-willed adult would do in outraged protest or to correct the record, with the implication they have some cognizent, rational thought, it must junk, it simply has to.
And thus show me (and the world) that I do in fact, still own them, even if only anonymously.
Its wonderful to be hated by someone such as this, you should try it ;-)
I see your junker arrived on cue. Funny how even reading what you said did not dissuade them. This IS true ownership. I do seem to have picked one up myself. I was basking in this when only to realize after such a long time here, I have no bragging rights. I much work harder on my animosity quotient!
This gnome like behavior is worth examining. Similar to a graffiti artist who wants to make a statement of ownership himself but can't do so directly knowing he is too weak. So, in spray painting " Fuck you" ...etc on a wall, he thinks he has captured some ownership in that pathetic gesture. In reality, he has just shown himself publicly to be weak to stoop to such a thing.
These gnomes are the Toadys that will attach themselves to Power if it ever arises because it is through real power they can do what they really wish to do but have no personal capability. In some ways they are,in fact, more dangerous because of their natural obsequience.
Yeah, I'm too damn Pollyanna here. You're right. In real life I have been so much of an asshole. Fired from jobs. Argued with strangers. Road raged people ( yes, true). Run from a cop and was nearly arrested ( caught me in a road block) Beaten to the ground by my karate instructor because I refused to back up. I've got to remember who I am.
Miffed;-)
Just as an aside, the market is NOT an "ecosystem". I hate these wankers.
Fine, have it your way.
It's a "Jungle" then.
Sure it is, just like the plains of Africa, or the Rockies, you have your predators and you have the sheep.
This guy looks like a winner. I am SURE the SEC is just super knowledgeable about markets and their mechanisms. I mean:
- Public sector organization. Check.
- Treated like a hoop to jump through by most corporates, and kept out of the loop as much as possible. Check.
- Claims made by probable bureaucrat looking to cash in on wider perceptions. Check.
Sounds like a well informed individual to me.
As an aside, if you set the interest rates, you set the price of money, note: by that definition, every market is rigged but hey, who cares about free-markets right? They are inefficient, so like, we uh, need to intervene because like... erm.. its bad and stuff. Like.. governments create jobs and uh.. Hillary said so.. like really. Intervention. Inefficient markets. Herpaderpaderpaderp.
PS: to the downvoter, I can only assume, based on your downvote that you either take offense to me:
Calling this former government paid asshat (who looks like a victim, anecdotally) out on his bullshit.
OR
For not plugging the interventionism in markets.
To the former, I would posit that a guy who sits a million miles away from any kind of market, and probably doesn't understand much around their function (if he did he would be using them more effectively) would be the last guy to find out about "rigged HFT markets". We know why Katayama's firm hired this guy.. firstly, he understands and can navigate the regulatory side. Secondly, he is a good spokesperson for Katayama's product.
To the latter, I would say, I would not necessarily be against moderate market regulation, or some (limited) interventionism, if I believe humans to be angels.. but a subset of humans are greedy, power-hungry and corrupt and inevitably they tend to be found where power resides. I can also certainly tell you that markets do tend to ultimately respond to underlying fundamentals. They also tend to self-regulate. In fact, Katayama's product is (supposedly) a free-market solution to a problem in existing markets (at least one form of HFT).
Also, the interventionist excuse of "the markets are imperfect, we need to protect people from these imperfections" is more often than not utilized to push through all sorts of shady market constraints, or just utilised to grab wealth.
Nothing to prove? Except that his employer benefits.
I wish someone un-former would actually have a pair of balls to say something.
Maybe they prefer their balls not nailed to a burning stump?
If he had done his fucking job, the world would be a better place.
and the hits just keep comin!
love seeing shit Ive been talking for years, being exposed for real!
now.. about those guillotines..
P < P + I
Truth here!
Stop whoring for Wall Street.
http://www.showrealhist.com/yTRIAL.html
http://patrick.net/?p=1223928
.
the market is rigged?
no way, ur telling me that a ''market'' that always somehow miracuiously finishes off the lows, and never comes off the highs, and can never fall more than 2 percent, and if it does fall 2 percent, that 2 perent is regained the following day coincidentally, is manipulated?
well thank u very much for telling us this, mr former sec director, i couldnt tell without u letting me in on this information
Don't forget that Mr. Exception-to-the-Volcker-Rule also told us that "today’s rules have been crafted to the benefit of insiders."
I hope this fuck gets ass cancer.
A big fat fucking "No shit"
The "now you fucking tell us" list grows longer by the day.
My favorite part of monetary economics was the part where the lecturer (former central banker) glossed over the one chapter on seniorage, citing that he "did not understand the material, and thus, could not teach it*."
True story.
*And if you believe that someone can understand fairly complex monetary models and apply them to economic data, but can somehow not understand seniorage, well.. might as well start trading based on Cramer's recommendations.
"No. No. No. Bear Stearns is fine. ... Don't move your money from Bear. Don't be silly. That's just silly." - Cramer.
Of course, no one will call him on it! Whistle-blowing can get you killed anyway, so I guess we cannot blame him. Is there redemption?
And interesting that main man J. Lew is coming out and doing PR on HFT as well.
This SEC guy acknowledging that it's all rigged casino is important. Confirms they know it full well.
But it begs the question, what these guys, as they're actually kind of rigging reality when they rig the markets together with the media cheer-leading, might want to come up with for distraction if they somehow end up being forced to pull the plug for real.
Talk about Death Star, at this point, this whole system is the equivalent of the WTC towers in 2001. They know it's become a pile of crap behind the facade and that it's becoming big liability and is not going to be a sustainable operation going forward.
So they'll have to pull the plug but will also need something to blame it on if they want to get away with this latest round of multi-year fraud. (As in AAA rated subprime being the former round of multi-year fraud.)
Subjectively, it's starting to get wobbly right now. It'll be interesting to see if we even get through March without something "unexpected" happening.
fuck u John u chicken shit mother fucker...
u didnt give a damn when u were there only about ur paycheck and career..
DEATH TO THE MONEYCHANGERS...
and death to those who knew right from wrong and did nothing....
For a "Dumb Ass" you're very astute!
SEPTEMBER Comments make the site 5 months later? C'mon ZH step yo game up.
hope he has a nailgun-proof vest.
Watching the VIX outperform UVXY even though UVXY is a product that is traded at 2 times the VIX - this is a newer one to "full retard".
It's that fucking yellen asshead again.
Watching the USD is the end of yellen.
“I’ve been able to find my voice on these issues in a way I couldn’t have done when I was in the government, because you’re always limited by internal politics and not wanting to get too far out in front of the agency,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been a little bit uncorked.”
What a gutless piece of excrement.
Before he was on the government "payroll," i.e. graft and bribery; now he's paid by Brad Katsu what's his face... . Why would anyone of integrity hire this albino monkey? Sorry, albino monkeys.
At least he's a well respected pussy. Did you read how awesome and funny he was?
What fresh(rehypothecated) fraud(hell) is this?
We talk about this shit everyday here. How do we get one of these high paying jobs to state the obvious?
Guilty as charged! Take him to the gallows.
that guy looks like a fucking mummy.
He looks like a slighty dumber version of Ed Begley, Jr. to me.
Noooo waaaayyy! I don't believe it. I call bullshit.
Rigged ? Un-impossible. HAHAHA what a $hyte $how the$e "market$" have become.
next to be revealed: Michelle Obama's cock is bigger than Barack's
I, for one, have had it with these unfounded, unpatriotic and utterly unrealistic conspiracy theories on how the market is rigged! Dow 50,000- look at the jobs report! Happy days are here again! I mean, until someone with real first hand knowledge steps forward to-
Oh. Well then...
Never mind.
/SARC
a norweigen rat desertin' ship?
milquetoast statement.
Looks like he's kept alive with hydraulic fluid and high voltage.
so this tool keeps his yap shut for 10 years and now has *credibility*
guy is about as relevant as Bart Chilton
Did I miss an interview with Gomer Pyle?
SURPRISE! SURPRISE! SURPRISE!
...this is old news to me. LOL
In other news, did someone mention my name in this article?
Coincidence?
Write a book about it and shut the fuck up.
So the markets are both regulated and rigged? One might get the crazy idea that they are both one and the same. Alright proggies, let's hear the excuses for those that are supposed to be watching the watchers. Fish in a barrel.
I love all of these "former chairmen" or "former director" types tells us the mind-blowingly-OBVIOUS-10-year-old-too-late-facts.
What's the point of telling us this when they SHOULD have been ringing the alarm bell when they had actual power or influence. Yeah...real heroes.
So what its been rigged for over 2 decades no one gives a rats arse. Zero prosecutions ala bowsky, milkin. GS runs the SEC, CFTC etc. etc. . How and when will this ever be fixed. I think NEVER.
douche
First Greenspan
Now here's Ramsay.
My guess is that they're shaking out the 'weak hands' here at 17,600 so they can push the DJIA down into the 15,000s and make even more profits from their shorts at 18,500.
Then with all the profits they make on this "sell off" and lots more 'weak hands' out of the game, voila.
'
'
'
If this douchebag is not 'wanting to get too far out in front of the agency' then what the ƒµç? is here for, then?
•?•
V-V
Is this a sign of a market top then? Little late to the party?
One day, maybe someone will be uncorking him in his orange jump suit...
He's looking to write a book now, sic. Don't tell us something we already know and have known.
Gee, I wonder how Mary Jo feels about all this truth coming out on her watch.
And the "NO SH!T, SHERLOCK!" Award Of the Year goes to this peach:
"... (there's a) general sense that today’s rules have been crafted to the benefit of insiders.
The tape is off, the shitgum watch is on.... Idiot decides to tell the truth now, WTF?
It's nice to hear from Captain Obvious every once in a while. You can bet this tidbit won't last even a second on CNBS.
Now that I helped facilitate crime and the erosion of a financial system, I want to tell the truth, and I am one of you now! ExSEC prick saying markets are rigged is the equivalent of a molester saying they touched someone.
Dat left eye drop. Speaks about which ones rode his horse, the bad ones do nerve damage. (Not to mention the hair, but that's also usually just due to stress).
Still, I'll raise a glass to a slave going out in a blaze of glory and claiming freedom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKCmyiljKo0