Market Manipulation

“Bear Sterns is fine. Do not take out your money… Bear Sterns is not in trouble.”
“Bear Stearns went under six days later.”
‘We talked about this yesterday, Lehman Brothers is no Bear Sterns. I would concur…you can’t compare Bear management with Lehman management. Lehman Management is incredibly engaged and responsive.”
“Lehman Brothers went under three months later.” (Comedy Central)

Media sources are questioning who they can trust with regards to the state of the financial market one year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. We take a look at perspectives from CBS News, Slate magazine, Comedy Central, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and ABC News.

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer speaks with CBS News about how the financial market is doing.

“The easy part was printing money, taking taxpayer money and giving it to the institutions -- institutions that had failed terribly. Major investment banks and commercial banks fundamentally violated their obligation to the public, and their shareholders and to government. The hard part is what follows, that is reforming the system and creating jobs, and in each of those critical areas, we are not doing well.”

John Stewart from Comedy Central singles out CNBC for not providing good information and advice.

“Reasoned financial reporting that combines the raw speed of fast money, with the intelligence of a box of parrots. You just had to know how to listen.”
“You should be buying things, and accept that they are over-valued. But accept that they are going to keep going higher. I know that sounds irresponsible, but that’s how you make the money.”

Matt Taibbi, a reporter for Rolling Stone, blames banks for the bad economy. He says:

“Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression – and they’re about to do it again.”

“The big scam here, is that they found ways to take a whole bunch of crap, slap it with a triple A rating and sell it to a bunch of big institutional investors.” (Rolling Stone)

With Warren Buffett bailing Goldman Sachs out with 5 billion dollars, a writer for The Wall Street Journal, in an article titled, ‘A Buffett in Sheep’s Clothing’, questions Buffett’s intentions.

“Is Warren Buffett helping the bond insurers? Or is he offering to eat their lunch?”
“On the surface, it looks like another heroic intervention from Buffett, who memorably saved Salomon Brothers after its scandal with Treasury bonds… But Buffett isn’t offering to do anything about the problematic structured products that are what is really dragging the bond insurers down.”

Forbes magazine speaks with economist Nouriel Roubini who says the market does not look good.

“What I see is more like a death by a thousand cuts, both for the larger banks, the regional banks, and the smaller banks. I see a financial system that is very very damaged.”

ABC News speaks with a financial expert who says it is important for investors to note that market advice is not one-size fits all.

“It depends on who you are as an investor. If you were asking that question of say a 75-year-old who is in retirement, needed every dime of what they have, needed to live on income, versus, say a 22-year-old that has a multi-million trust fund, just started working, doesn’t need the money. The answer to what the investor should do now is so vastly different. And I think that’s the thing that people miss. They think of the market as when do I get back in or when do I get out.”

Media sources in our research suggest that there are forces manipulating the market and question if people should be investing. We want to know what you think.