Unbridled Greed

I watched this Facebook IPO with a jaundiced view, unconvinced that any of it made the slightest bit of sense, and that it essentially consisted of an attempt to blow a new “Internet bubble.” Turns out our economy is so feeble, and so filled with greed and corruption, that we can no longer even blow bubbles successfully.

Morgan Stanley, as backer of the IPO, had a couple of responsibilities which it failed to fulfill. It was required to say nothing to its clients about Facebook, since it had inside information about that company as a result of preparing the IPO, and it advised some of its clients that Facebook was likely to face lowered earnings in coming months. It was also required to advise Facebook of the proper initial price at which to offer the stock, and it allowed the Facebook owner to raise that offer from the initial $28 to a ridiculous figure of $38 per share.

You know the result, major embarrassment for everybody, but the “owners” of Facebook don’t care, because they are walking away from the debacle with their pockets stuffed full of money.

And this along with the JP Morgan debacle proves that, for all of the smoke that they have been blowing up our dresses, Obama and the Democrats have done absolutely nothing about the financial structure that caused the economic collapse of 2008. The failure to prosecute the fraud and corruption that caused that economic crisis is leading us right straight into another one, and this one cannot be blamed on Republicans.