Oklahoma to vote on SB979 on Tuesday…Again?
By Mark Faulk
April 30, 2007
Well, here we go again. It looks like someone in the Oklahoma House of
Representatives made a couple of minor alterations to State Bill 979,
which deals with the problem of fails to deliver in the stock market.
Why does that not surprise me? Because of the changes, the bill has to
return to the State Senate for another vote on Tuesday, May 1, during the
afternoon session slated to begin at 1:30 PM CST. In its simplest form,
this is how I described the problem in a commentary about SB979 called
“Wall Street vs. Main Street”:
Every day, six billion dollars worth of shares are purchased in
companies in the US stock market, and not delivered. Someone signs on to
their brokerage account, or more accurately, millions of someones sign
on, and pay for shares in companies that their broker doesn’t deliver.
In some cases, those shares are never delivered, creating what is
essentially a flood of counterfeit shares in publicly traded companies,
harming both investors and the companies themselves.
This issue is NOT as much about Wall Street screwing investors as it
is about the loss of potential jobs, local and state tax revenue lost,
citizens’ investment funds stolen, and retirement funds decimated.
It’s about hedge fund managers building hockey rinks in their backyards
while the rest of the country struggles just to make ends meet. It’s
about CEOs of the major brokerage firms getting bonuses amounting to
tens of millions of dollars a year while small startup companies are
forced into bankruptcy before they even have a chance to see if they can
flourish on their own merit.
I’ll keep this short and to the point: We need you help, one more
time. The flood of emails and phone calls to the Oklahoma House of
Representatives just before the vote last week helped the bill to pass
overwhelmingly. Now we need to do it one more time…and do it quickly,
especially if you’re from Oklahoma. Send a short email to as many of the 48
state senators either tonight or early Tuesday, or if you’re from
Oklahoma, call your senator personally. Tell him to pass SB979 for the
good of all the citizens and businesses in the state, and indeed, for all
of America. If you want, link the two articles I’ve written about
SB979 for them to read, or feel free to quote from either article.
Once again, we have the opportunity to send a clear message to Wall
Street that we are sick and tired of corruption in the stock market. Tell
them that we support them in their efforts to enact legislation that
protects all Americans, instead of just the ultra-wealthy. Tell them to
pass SB979 by the same overwhelming majority that their counterparts in
the House of Representatives did. Tell them to do the right thing!
To contact every senator in Oklahoma, go to:
http://www.oksenate.gov/Senators/directoryalpha.htmSend them to the following articles about SB979, or feel free to quote
from either article:
Oklahoma Passes Landmark Stock Market Reform Law
http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/Investing101/1074.htmlWall Street vs. Main Street
http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/Investing101/1073.htmlhttp://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/Commentary/1071.html
