The Green Light 01-16-08 mpg Ruling could stifle lawsuits by investors A quote...."The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against investors who sue businesses that help manipulate stock prices of publicly traded companies." To all the people out there in charge of those foreign banks, mutual funds and sovereign wealth funds with money to invest....soon a plethora of highly educated young men with MBA’s from Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Stanford representing various US banks, brokerage firms and most especially Hedge Funds will be flocking to your door steps ready to regale you with tales about the tremendous opportunities available to you in the US securities markets. They'll be filling your heads with visions from their spread sheets, flow charts and of course their power point presentations describing the vast sums they'll be able to make for you. As you gaze in delight at their dancing figures dreaming of things to come they'll regrettably bring up one small, niggling, little, detail. They'll tell you "right now things are a bit slow for our (place a US firm's name here) but all you'll need to do to participate in this golden opportunity we're offering you is invest a small starter sum....say five or ten billion dollars to get a share of one of the most prestigious firms (on Wall Street, in the banking sector, real estate sector etc) and soon as we've shown you in our presentations all these riches will be yours." And years later as you ruminate on the folly of your decision, most likely in a prison cell somewhere in your own country, you'll come to truly realize what "business" means in the American lexicon. It's the "Capitalist" way. You've been warned. – mpg |