| | Register
Who is Bob O'Brien?
Sanity Check Archive
Click Here to see Bob's Old Sanity Check articles.
About our Blogs

Blogs found on this website represent the opinion of the author. For more information please visit our terms of use.
Funny Bunny
Looking for something a little lighter?
Catch Bob's more irreverent and amusing pieces in his Funny Bunny Blog.

Bob O'Brien's Sanity Check Blog

Author: bobo Created: 1/10/2006 10:09 AM
This blog is dedicated to Bob O'Brien's Sanity Check editorials, and discussions about the Market Reform Movement, the SEC, failing to deliver/naked shorting, etc. It was created so that his many detractors and fans can tell him that he is full of it, correct his mistakes, rant and rave, kowtow, preen, or whatever seems appropriate. The only sins are being boring, or inarticulate, or dim. Humorous pieces can be found in the new Funny Bunny Blog area above, for a lighter-hearted take on being a bunny. Older Bobo blogs can be viewed by selecting a month under the calendar to your right.
Judge Decides American Juries Too Stupid To Know Right From Wrong
By bobo on 12/20/2007 11:17 AM
While it is hard to argue that the average American isn't particularly gifted in terms of understanding the intricacies of securities law, one judge has decided that juries are too dim to differentiate criminal misconduct from playing by the rules...
Comments (37) More...
NY Times Tries To Get In Front Of The GAO's Harsh SEC Report
By bobo on 12/16/2007 6:25 PM
In a classic bit of trying to control the spin of seriously bad news, the NY Times does it's best to soften the blow of a report that basically shows the SEC to be completely incompetent to regulate the sale of ice water, much less the US markets...
Comments (35) More...
Lenin: Repeat A Lie Often Enough....
By bobo on 12/6/2007 3:03 PM
A stunning article in the Register (UK of course, as the US doesn't seem to allow real journalism anymore) outlines how Gary Weiss is part of the massive confidence game being run at Wikipedia, to control the spin of articles on Naked Short Selling
Comments (39) More...
A Refresher For Those Easily Distracted By Flashing Lights and Loud Noises - UPDATED 12/4
By bobo on 12/1/2007 7:49 AM
I was asked the other day to summarize things for someone who wanted a brief explanation of why this isn't just a small problem that we don't need to be worried about.
Comments (39) More...
Bethany, I Feel Like I've Nurtured A Viper At My Breast
By bobo on 11/28/2007 10:49 AM
In the continuing parade of captured journalists, Bethany makes a bid for the star spot of suck-up of the year. It's a crowded field, with all the NY fishwraps working fast and furious, however her latest certainly should place her in the final round.
Comments (10) More...
What's $192 Billion in Fails to Deliver and Receive Among Friends?
By bobo on 11/19/2007 11:24 AM
I mean, it's not like hiding the size of the delivery failure problem behind a wall of rhetoric is self serving for the securities industry, or anything?
Comments (44) More...
The Most Important Thing You Will Hear This Year
By bobo on 11/2/2007 10:50 AM
Everyone who wants to understand why the US market system is as compromised as an Afghani customs agent needs to set aside some time and listen to this landmark presentation.
Comments (42) More...
It's All About Free Speech!!! Er, Or, Maybe It Is That Patrick Is A Crook, Or A Kook...!?
By bobo on 11/1/2007 6:46 PM
What's particularly amusing to me is how the Gradient/Rocker matter was supposedly all about free speech, but now that the Supreme Court laughed that out of the room, now it is that Patrick is a, well, really bad man....
Comments (7) More...
Rico. Suave. Wheel of Justice Grinding Away...
By bobo on 10/23/2007 1:57 PM
Is it a problem when you are trying to get the suit against you thrown out, uh, you know, because, uh, well, you say it's all a pack of filthy lies....and the judge slaps you down like an errant schoolgirl?
Comments (20) More...
What we have heah, suh, is a failyuh to communicaate.
By bobo on 10/4/2007 5:21 PM
Patrick and Patch write stunningly clear comment letters indicating why the MM exemption is unnecessary, and actively harms equity investors. Of course, the SEC has little or no interest in any of that, preferring to stall any meaningful reforms for as long as possible....
Comments (29) More...
Musings on the market, and of desperate acts for desperate men
By bobo on 9/29/2007 7:54 PM
Is it just me, or does the industry hate the 1934 Act so much it can't even bear to mention it in its comment letters to the SEC?
Comments (24) More...
NCANS site to be integrated into this site
By bobo on 9/24/2007 7:11 AM
We decided to incorporate the NCANS material into this site, as it was a duplication of effort to keep both sites active.
Comments (6) More...
Weiss Charged with Felonies, Gradient Sings Anthem While Losing Stalling Ploy
By bobo on 9/19/2007 6:25 PM
Milberg Weiss partner Mel Weiss is charged with being a bad bad man, and Gradient and Rocker prepare to free themselves of the cumbersome burden of secrecy - before a jury. Not for want of trying to weasel out of it, though....
Comments (20) More...
NCANS Letter Posted At SEC Site, SEC Officially Screwing Everyone But Wall Street
By bobo on 9/18/2007 5:35 AM
NCANS' comment letter calling for the immediate elimination of the Market Maker exemption is now up, as are several from the industry bemoaning how much activity will slow in heavily manipulated stocks. And the GAO releases a report basically indicating the SEC is doing squat for investors, and actively harming those it investigates.
Comments (7) More...
Patrick Creates The Ultimate Series on Captured Regulators and the Market's Folly
By bobo on 9/6/2007 1:53 PM
If you only read one thing this year about the issues surrounding the stock market, the delivery failure crisis, the meltdown in our capital markets, etc. it should be this series.
Comments (12) More...
Important comment letter for the SEC
By bobo on 8/23/2007 3:37 AM
If you want to do something about the SEC's delay in eliminating the MM exception, which allows the options MM to naked short to their heart's content, legally, here's the template of a simple comment letter you can send. UPDATE: SIGNS THAT THE MELTDOWN COMMETH
Comments (23) More...
Don't worry, everything is fine, it's all just a little out of hand, is all....
By bobo on 8/14/2007 3:41 PM
As the financial markets melt down and liquidity evaporates from the system, a lone voice of reason (actually several, if you count Patrick and I) discusses why human nature ensures another meltdown commeth...
Comments (24) More...
Grandfather Clause Dead - And.....Now What?
By bobo on 8/7/2007 11:03 AM
Pardon my cynicism, but if the SEC had simply tried to appear to do something meaningful, while actually doing the least humanly possible, how would that have looked any different than this latest farce?
Comments (37) More...
Last one out, turn out the lights.
By bobo on 8/5/2007 7:29 PM
If the American experiment is based upon a foundation of the triumph of capitalism, the next week could well signal the end of the experiment.
Comments (18) More...
It really is the end of the world as we know it.....
By bobo on 8/4/2007 9:01 AM
I've been saying for some time that the prime brokers and hedge funds are creating systemic risk that the taxpayer will ultimately be forced to pay for, and that the SEC is a sham entity that does nothing but run interference for Wall Street and the financial elite, at the direct expense of investors. Whadda ya know, now, years after taking this position and backing my mouth with hundreds of blogs, the NY choagie crowd starts to "discover" this....
Comments (18) More...
Cramer, AKA Dr. Obvioso, proclaims that the markets are rigged and bent!
By bobo on 7/28/2007 5:45 PM
Kind of like someone admitting that gravity exists, Jimbo tickles us all, and the bunny asks, why this, why now?
Comments (36) More...
Remarkable Speech By Senator Bennett
By bobo on 7/22/2007 5:40 AM
For the, "There is no naked short selling problem" crowd, here's a speech Senator Bennett made on the floor calling for a hearing on NSS.
Comments (24) More...
Prime Brokers Kicked in Throat By California Court, Now All Shall Be Known
By bobo on 7/18/2007 3:46 AM
Apparently the CA court wasn't swayed by the sham arguments mounted by Wall Street to conceal their dirty deeds...
Comments (38) More...
Bobo gone walkabout for a few weeks...
By bobo on 7/2/2007 2:19 PM
It's summer, and time for a little traveling and whatnot.
Comments (40) More...
It Was The Best Of Times.....
By bobo on 6/14/2007 4:20 AM
A Tale Of Two Systems Of Justice.
Comments (47) More...
An Absolutely Amazing and Definitive Video Special On Market Manipulation, Naked Short Selling, Hedge Funds
By bobo on 6/2/2007 2:31 AM
Max Keiser has created a definitive special that clearly explains what is going on in the US capital markets.
Comments (64) More...
Rocker and Gradient Lose Appeal in OSTK Case - Now What Will They Try to Further Stall?
By bobo on 5/30/2007 10:40 AM
Predictably, stock manipulation and colluding to defame a company aren't free speech, they are conduct. Maybe now Rocker and Gradient can get the discovery train rolling?
Comments (30) More...
Real Meaningful Reform, or Throwing Some Low Level Foot-soldiers Under The Bus?
By bobo on 5/18/2007 2:56 PM
Hard to imagine Wall Street creating a minor tempest to conceal the larger storm...
Comments (24) More...
Joe Nocera Continues His Hilarious Antics For The Amusement Of The Cheap Seats
By bobo on 5/12/2007 5:22 AM
Formerly serious NY Times flack Joe Nocera launches a triumph of absurdity without cracking a smile...
Comments (32) More...
Patrick Byrne Speaks Out About Hedge Funds and their Evil Ways, Media Collectively Applies Double Standard
By bobo on 5/11/2007 5:35 AM
Great video of Patrick in a forum with a pro-short Yale professor (what else?), and the media makes much hay out of Patrick's subpoena from last year (which he actually discussed openly at the time) while conveniently forgetting it was also the target of the same subpoenas...
Comments (11) More...
The Big Lie Redux: Options Exchanges speak out against changing SHO...
By bobo on 5/5/2007 6:51 AM
I really don't need to write much this time around.
Comments (26) More...
My Summer State Of The Union
By bobo on 5/4/2007 1:19 PM
Most of the pieces have fallen into place, and the overall picture is beyond ugly and bleak.
Comments (25) More...
Reading The Latest Rocker Nuggets, I Literally Blew Coffee Through My Nose
By bobo on 4/30/2007 5:10 PM
Sure it's uncomfortable. Even after you blow it, the pain lingers on. Maybe I should sue Rocker, or McDonald's, whose coffee it was that caused me such pain, and so badly traumatized my mucous membranes....?
Comments (19) More...
OK Passes Anti-NSS Legislation; Eagletech Story Told Without Bias
By bobo on 4/26/2007 6:04 AM
The good folks of Oklahoma have gotten a landmark anti-NSS bill passed. Read all about it.
Comments (23) More...
The Ever Forgettable and Oft Ignored 'lilGW Hurls Forth Yet More Tortured Idiocy
By bobo on 4/23/2007 2:57 AM
When you have to pretend that everyone reading is addled, does that make you a dimwit, or your readers....?
Comments (28) More...
Overstock Releases Amusing and Sad Press Release
By bobo on 4/20/2007 8:25 AM
Amusing in the way that being wryly amused by the human condition can be amusing, sad in the same way.
Comments (16) More...
Must Read letter to SEC in Reg SHO comment section
By bobo on 4/17/2007 8:09 AM
Rarely do I see a summary that is both comprehensive, as well as beautifully structured. This is one of the times.
Comments (19) More...
PBS Special Featuring Gary Aguirre - What A Loon! A Kook! Oh, Wait, He Isn't...
By bobo on 4/13/2007 7:58 PM
Everyone who claims that those concerned over a systemic collapse due to Wall Street larceny, personified by a corrupt SEC and all-powerful hedge funds, are a bunch of loons, have a tough job now after the Bloomberg, and now the PBS special...
Comments (28) More...
Q4 SIA Data on NYSE FTDs and FTRs hits $82 Billion
By bobo on 4/2/2007 3:09 PM
$82 billion of failure to deliver and receive shares per the SIA's own website in Q4, 2006, and yet we are still being told this isn't a big deal...
Comments (47) More...
A Summary Of My Email Comment To The SEC On Reg SHO
By bobo on 3/27/2007 7:12 PM
It seemed like a good idea to summarize my thinking as to how badly screwed up the SEC's handling of our markets has become, and why....
Comments (68) More...
Remember How The SEC Stalled Meaningful Action for Years on FTDs? More Doing Nothing Ahead...
By bobo on 3/26/2007 1:30 PM
Well, just when you thought it couldn't get any weirder or more obvious, more stalling from those who watch, wait, and do nothing as the barbarians run through the streets raping and pillaging...
Comments (48) More...
Jim Cramer is Getting A Bum Rap - And NASAA Files A Great Amicus Brief Lambasting the DTCC
By bobo on 3/20/2007 4:34 PM
You heard it here first, folks.... UPDATE - Read the Whistler Amicus from NASAA, in which it cores the DTCC's position that it is too important to be accountable for fraud...
Comments (50) More...
Bloomberg Special on NSS A Must-Watch. Outstanding Program.
By bobo on 3/12/2007 10:31 PM
I just got finished watching the Bloomberg TV special on NSS. I was ready to hate it, and instead, I walked away thinking, "Wow. They get it. And now so should the rest of the planet." Watch it, and then disseminate it on every message board and blog, and send it to every publication and radio/TV outlet you can think of. This is a massive effort, and the beginning of the end.
Comments (68) More...
The NY Times Runs A Scathing Parody Of The Obligatory "Wacky Patty" Dross
By bobo on 3/10/2007 12:11 PM
NY Times funnyman Joe Nocera does a ribald satire of the typical attack on Overstock's Patrick Byrne, with hysterical results...
Comments (37) More...
Bobo Discusses Whose Shirts He Wears With The NY Times
By bobo on 3/8/2007 12:57 PM
Pulitzer prize finalist Joe Nocera, one of the biggest of the big names in NY financial journalism (noteworthy for among other things being involved with Bethany McClean of Fortune's book on Enron), wants to chitty chat about a fly-speck MREIT, and the Easter Bunny's thoughts on Wall Street corruption, lawsuits, shorts, etc. UPDATE$: BLOOMBERG TV TO AIR NSS SPECIAL!
Comments (45) More...
Wall Street Wins Battle In War To End Larceny, Thievery and Racketeering
By bobo on 3/1/2007 8:04 AM
The Utah battle was won yesterday by Wall Street. Investors lose, as the state effectively gives the green light to racketeering, counterfeiting and fraud, Wall Street style.
Comments (44) More...
Utah Considering Pulling The Landmark Anti-NSS Bill - Things That Make One Go, "Hmmmm..."
By bobo on 2/25/2007 5:57 PM
Is that odd, where a sunshine bill passes by an overwhelming majority, and then the bill's sponsor is all over the news today backpedaling? UPDATE: MORE UNFOLDING UGLINESS IN THIS BREAKING STORY.
Comments (24) More...
US Chamber of Commerce Requests Hearings Into Manipulative and Fraudulent Short Selling
By bobo on 2/21/2007 8:24 PM
Is that bad, when the largest group of its kind in the world is demanding the Senate to hold hearings into naked short selling? And we are treated to the obligatory "Byrne's a loon" piece from a hack with a hatchet whose idea of investigative journalism is to parrot 'lilGW's whining. And the NY Times continues to misstate fact, misattributing quotes like Enron invented financials...
Comments (37) More...
The Media Continue the SEC/Gradient Shagfest, Steamrolling Over Uncomfortable Obvious Conflicts
By bobo on 2/15/2007 9:36 PM
So, the SEC can't say enough or move quickly enough when a private research firm and a private hedge fund are sued by a bunch of companies for allegedly criminal behavior. If you are a public company in the bad guys' sights, you can spend years with a cloud over your head, but apparently if you have juice, you get treated like the head of Microsoft...
Comments (41) More...
A Tale Of Two Justice Systems - Or Why I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love Kleptocracy
By bobo on 2/14/2007 8:30 AM
The same reporters issued subpoenas by the SEC were the first out of the gate to herald a not-so-remarkable development in the SEC's "investigation" of Gradient...
Comments (34) More...