Do you think that the Federal Govt is manipulating the markets?

Question

Is the government intervening in the stock markets? Are they propping up the US Dollar? Was the price of gas manipulate before the elections? Are they behind a lot of the mysterious gold selling that happens in NY everytime that gold tries to go up? The Treasury and the Fed are now loaded with former Goldman Sachs employees and Goldman has just had unbelievable record profits. They also went on record changing some futures trading that caused gas prices to plummet just when Paulson went to Treasury. Am I the only one that sees this?

That's gas as in gasoline not natural gas.

Answer 1

Yes - they are!

The US regulary dumps gold on the market in order to supress the gold prices, a high gold price is bad for the dollar - trouble is they are running out of gold to sell!

John Embry of Sprott Asset Management did a big report on it accusing the government of maniplatiing the gold price...THEY DID NOT REFUTE A SINGLE WORD! ie. its all true!


As for the stock market the US is constantly proping it up - Fed Head Ben Bernanke admitted openly that there was a Plunge Protection Team - to stop the market from falling.

There hasnt been a 2% correction (fall) in the US stock market since 9/11 - do you know what the chances are of that happening?
89,000,000 to 1

need I say more....

....check the sites below for more info and ask the guys who run them if you have any more questions,

or IM me [e-mail]

Answer 2

The federal government is not allowed to trade in the stock market, so don't affect it directly.

However, the Fed intervenes to affect interest rates (that is their job) to help smooth the rate of growth in the economy. Ptopping up the dollar is also part of their job. They have a lot of power -- but not as much as most people think. Their setting of iFed Funds Rates is often a reaction to what the market tells them to do. If the market disagrees with the Fed's ideas, it will go in a different direction.

As for the Treasury getting people from Goldman Sachs -- there is a long tradition of sending Wall Street's best to Washington. This tradition is particularly strong with Goldman, and cuts across party lines. President Clinton also appointed a Treasury Secretary who had been chairman at Goldman Sachs.

Answer 3

The first question caught my attention. The second question killed it. The government WANTS a lower dollar. We are trying to help exporters sell more stuff abroad by making it cheaper. There are several reasons for that--balance of trade improvement, increased industrial jobs, and compensation for a frequently unfavorable opinion against America abroad.

As for the staffing of treasury and related with the profitability of Goldman Sachs, consider that after those key people left GS profits rose--the government got those who held performance down at GS, is a more likely scenario.

For the issue of natural gas prices falling, the problem there is what? I think you are looking for conspiracies, or am I the only one that sees this?

Answer 4

To start with it is not only the Government but also the Federal Reserve who is involoved in managing the economic machinery. One is politicaly motivated and the other Citizen oriented. There is always a 'saddle point' between what the government decides to do and what the Fed decides to do where actually the decision takes place.
So for your questions policy decisions made by the government and the Fed do change the environment, for example a decision by Fed to change interest rates will start producing changes in the environment with 2 quarters lagged. So what you are worried about the government popping up dollar, governments are in the game of governing for better life for it's citizen and strong currency policy is one of their agendas especially in US, Japan is an exception. Maintaining gold price is probably also their agenda since US don't like it's economy to overly depend on Gold after the Bretton Wood submit. They might try to intervene when the price go out of control for various ethical reaosns. Governments some times interfere for Paternalistic reasons too which is one charecteristics of ethical governments. Oil prices started plummeting sometime before the elections. Iran decided to lower oil prices for some reason in the OPEC the reason unknown. Probably this reflects in the local economy. These sorts of changes are present all the time only thing is it is seen and understood only by those who keep watching the economy on a day to day basis by reading the Wall Street Joruanl, Economist, Forbes, Businessweek etc;. Americans has all the more reasons now to be paranoid about the government interference since the Homeland Security bill was passed sometime back. Threat is a reality some hard decisions need to be taken as precutionary meassures. There is no need to panic about it. Executive prerogatives do sometimes drive citizen to their wits end. Then probably they don't have anyother visible choice left open other than what they belive is right for the occassion. As a citizen of US you might have noticed as I said earlier Executive prerogatives bring about lot of changes in US, which one should be aware of to explain the doubts creeping up in ones mind.
Economic paradigm shifts is what you are talking about and in these times of Globalized economy these sorts of changes are bound to happen which has international connotations. One last thing Africa is getting prosperous many parts like Nigeria, Botswana etc; and the demand for Gold is bound to go up and American Government as a policy don't encourage such development. So there is no need to panic keep watching the economy and you will surely know who is doing what on what basis. If you were a professional Business person or Economist it would have beem more easier.
Former Consultant to Federal Reserve, USA.

Answer 5

The government has and does influence the economy. The Federal reserve adjusts interest rates and money supply, Congress adjusts tax laws to add or subtract money from the economy. i the government is propping up the dollar they are not doing that good of a job it just keeps falling.

I guess the answer to your question is Yes and No.