However, Bloomberg may soon find itself in the awkward position of having to report on itself, or at least its partner.
Speculation continues that a major focus of the current government insider trading centers around "expert networks". From the start we pointed out that the government was, thus, only one step away from claiming a trader who trades based on information in the WSJ is trading on inside information. Expert networks, when all is said and done, like newspapers and wire services, provide information about industries and companies. It's as close to news as you can get, without getting ink on your fingers.
As we have already reported, Bloomberg is in a partnership with the largest of these expert networks, Gerson Lehrman Group.
It appears that Bloomberg was providing via its partnership pretty much what Gerson was providing on its own. According to a Bloomberg press release:
Through this new partnership, Bloomberg clients will be able to view profiles of select GLG Council Members; request consultations directly with those Council Members; and access news commentary, video, webcasts and teleconferences led by GLG Council Members globally. In addition, Bloomberg and Gerson Lehrman Group will jointly produce seminars and surveys that will be available exclusively to Bloomberg Professional Service users.
Does this mean that if Gerson will be charged with providing inside information, will Bloomberg also? If a trader entered trades based on Gerson supplied information and is charged with insider information, will traders who based trades on Bloomberg information be charged with insider trading?
The absurdity of all this would seem to be clear to all, but if you are the SEC caught up in a major porn surfing scam, it's not. And you would probably charge the Pope with insider dealings for talking directly to God, to get focus off of your real doings. It's really time to close down this FDR-Joe Kennedy constructed monstrosity.
'Expert Network'?
ReplyDeleteDoes this not describe the Banksters and those they serve?
I suspect that this is a cleanup of the independent expert networks that somehow got in the way of the permitted expert networks.
Did anyone besides Rothbard on the right and Lundberg on the left write about these struggles?
In this case I suspect that the independents are rather innocent and still naively believed in the marketplace and the rule of law however regulated.
Let them then learn their lesson.
All is gamed however they did not know all of the rules of the game.