quorum call:

mr. kaufman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. kaufman: i ask unanimous consent that the call of the

quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kaufman: i ask unanimous consent that speak as if in morning business for 18 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kaufman: mr. president, i rise again to speak out about the problems in the financial markets caused by abusive short-selling activities. it can accuse abuse of the credit default market by planting false suggestions that aaron of you isvival is in doubt. my focus is on naked short selling. let me be clear about my main point. the public believes the s.e.c. has yet to discount that the effects of abuse of naked short-selling practices helped cement the demise of bear stearns and lehman brothers as well as made it harder for banks to raise capital in the throes of this financial crisis. it is no exaggeration to say that abusive short-selling at a critical moment further endangered our financial system, and economy and thereby helped lead to taxpayer bailouts that

have totaled hundreds of billions of dollars. we are still waiting for the s.e.c.'s enforcement response. it is likely that we'll continue to wait, as i will discuss, because current rules are ineffective and unenforceable. there is still a critical need for better s.e.c. regulations that would help the enforcement division to do its job and stop naked short-selling as abusive and manipulate dead in its tracks. yes, the s.e.c. in april proposed five versions of return to the uptick rule which i believe never should have wouldn't repealed in the first place without putting something effect any of its place. the uptick rule would simply require stock traders to wait for an uptick in price before sell ago stock short was effect for 70 years. that's 7-0 years. until it was repealed in june of 2007.

the comment period for the reinstatement of the rule is complete. it is disappointing but not surprising that many on wall street now oppose that moaftd step. i urge the s.e.c. to move forward on that front. as i have consistently maintained in my communications with the securities and exchange commission, however, reinstating some form of the uptick rule alone puts too nir row a frame on the problems associated with naked short-selling. the problem at its root is that the current rules against naked short-selling are both inadequate and impossible to enforce. a strict preborrowing agreement would address the problem and end it once and for all yet the s.e.c. still has done nothing to propose a pre-borrow rule. if we end up with no uptick rule and no pro-borrow requirement, the s.e.c. will be bending to the will of an industry that has shown recklessly but clearly lacks remorse. there is a fierce you are general did -- there is afierces

problem. today the markets may fall back into the continuation of a severely painful bear market. if the markets of certain stocks fall back again and if the bear market raiders act again using abusive short-selling practices to damage and possibly destroy the stocks of banks and other company, the s.e.c. will have a lot of explaining to do. unless we see responses from the agency in the near-term. i have been writing the s.e.c. and talking about this issue on the senate floor since march 3. it is now june 24 and the s.e.c. still has done nothing. it is time for the s.e.c. to act. let me review the history of this issue and the evidence. naked hortishort-selling occurs when a trader selells a financil instrument short without first borrowing or even ensuring it can be borrowed. this quieters our securities and capital markets to nothing more than gambling casinos.

since the naked seller purports to sell something he doesn't own and may never own in the expectation that prices of the instruments sold will decline before ever settling the trade. because this activity requires no capital outlay, it also inspires naked short sellers to flood the market with false rumors that make it a self-fulfilling one. if the seller does not borrow the security in time to make delivery to the borrow in the standard three-day settlement period, the seller fails to deliver. sometimes fails to deliver can be used by human mechanic errors. but these types are only a very small portion of the actual number of fails to deliver our markets confront continually. selling what you don't own and haven't borrowed gives the seller a free ride. it effectively says, show me the money -- now and you'll get your stock sometime in the future. by analogy, it is very much like giving access to a super bowl on

the day of the game -- in other words, giving someone a ticket to the super bowl on the date of the game -- in return for a promise that the spectator will ultimately produce a ticket long after the big event has occurred. it's well known that abusive short-selling has been linked to the downfall of two major financial firms -- bear stearns and lehman brothers. according to bloomberg news, failed trades with shorts in trade value. failed trades during the bloomberg news -- failed trades correlate with the drops in share value enough to count for 30% to 70% of the declines in bear stearns, lehman and other stocks last year. the huge increase in naked short-selling exacerbated the financial crisis. listen to this. in january 2507, 550 million shares failed to deliver. by january of 2008, 1.1 billion

shares failed to deliver and in july of 2008, he will 2 billion shares failed to deliver. these fails to deliver drove stock value down further than the market would have done by deluding prices. according to robert shapiro in his recent comprive study, before bear stearns collapsed, its failed delivers went from less than 100,000 to 14 million, significantly diluting the values of the stock. as the coalition against market manipulation stated, "just as counterfeit currency dilutes and destroys value, these phantom shares flood market with false supply." for example, according to euro money, on march 14, 2008, "120% of bear stearns' outstanding stock was traded." on march 14, 2008, 128% of bear stearns' outstanding stock was

traded. how can more than 100% of a stock's share be traded? it can only occur because of the absence of required borrowers and naked short selling. without a pre-borrow agreement in one day, multiple locates allow the same single share of stock be sold over and over and over and over again. without effective rules of enforcement, millions of shares of stock are sold short and not delivered as required. lehman brothers also faces similar be a normal increases in fails to deliver before its collapse. according to bloomberg, "as lehman brothers struggled to survive last year, as many as 32.8 million shares in the company were sold and not delivered to buyers on time." that was more than a 57-fold increase over the prior day's peak of 567,000 failed shares -- trades. many banks that helped to drive the u.s. economy are particularly at risk from abusive short-selling practices due to the importance of investor confidence in maintaining capital.

on september 18 -- 19, 2008, the s.e.c. implemented a temporary emergency order barring all short-selling to protect 799 financial companies which included many banks. because the damage naked short selling has done in destroying their companies an investor values. but bearing all short-selling is lying throwing the baby out with the bath water. proper short selling provides the market with a prospect of meaningful price discovery. naked short selling practices led the market to seek equilibrium and the s.e.c. recognize the the only way to protect these companies from an unnecessary devaluation was to implement a ban. many of these companies later moved under the troubled asset relief program, tarp. while new regulations issued by s.e.c. last fall were the first steps to protect companies, the s.e.c. has not done nearly enough. if naked short-sell something not policed and rules against market manipulation are not enforced effectively, naked short selling will continue to

harm tarp, banks, and companies. if stronger regulation is not implemented, abusive short selling will impair the he's their third starter. with cole green on the mound, he's an outstanding young t pitcher, a pitch guy, a. three-pitch guy. he has the silence these l.s.u. bats.yo youngman did a great job as far as slengs them last night. they may be in a slump and cole green needs to capitalize onand that. >> coverage begins at:00 eastern, 6:00 central on espn and espn360.com.>> cov orel hershiser, appreciate your time. enjoy the game tonight in omaha. >> it's going to be great. ♪

>> well new york 2008, stephania -- steph curry was the darling of the ncaa tournament. this season he led the nation in scoring. tomorrow curry will find out where his nba path will begin. andy katz caught up with the shooting sensation. >> well, steph, from the beginning there has been all this talk about whether or not the knicks covet you and how they could get you. where do you think you're going to land? >> hopefully in the top-ten range somewhere. that's about as far as i can get right now. as you can see, trades and everybody switching positions and things like that, it's unpredictable until thursday night when david stern comes out and calls it. hopefully i fall in the top ten and i'll be happy with any spot i land. >> when you worked out with new york, how did they leave it with you? the chances of you slideing to eighth seem unlikely. >> they told me they were confident in my game and if i was on the board, i was their

guy, their number-one guy. that doesn't mean a guaranteed pick, but it's good the hear from a team. i went to a couple other workouts and improved my situation. so i made it tougher on them down the stretch, but we'll see what happens come draft night. >> you went to sacramento. that's sort of the high point at four. how comfortable were you with the kings in. >> very comfortable. we had a great workout there, six great point guards, tyreke evan, jonny flynn, guys like that. a great chance for me to show my skills and why they should pick me over those other guys and things like that. it was fun. i think i liked the situations they have there. you know, a chance to turn that team around. like i said, any team that i go to, i'll try the make nose of that opportunity. >> why do you think you're ready to contribute next season? >> just my basketball i.q. and the way i can shoot the ball. i think that will definitely help spread the offense out for an nba team. my point guard skills are developing as we speak.

so with that and just being able to pick things up quickly and my nature, i think i can definitely be productive on the next level next year. >> chad ford's latest mock draft version 6.1, not a whole lot has changed from 1 to 3, but he's now got jonny flynn in the top ten going to milwaukee, knocking out brandon jennings, who has fall on the atlanta at number 19. there you see stephen curry sitting at six with the t-wolves. lookie here, looking live at manny ramirez as he continues his minor league assignment, getting ready for his july 3rd return to the los angeles dodgers. here, of course, with the albuquerque isotopes. in new mexico. and well, moments ago he talked with everybody about making his comeback. >> i feel good. i feel great. >> are you game ready? >> what do you think?

i haven't played in three months. >> so how close are you? >> what do you think? >> how close are you? >> i don't know. figure it out. guy, i got to get ready for the game. >> what do you... did you feel anything yesterday, that whole atmosphere and the way everybody reacted. >> everything's fine. >> that was quick. >> quick and to the point, as is manny. >> even without manny in the lineup however, the dodgers continued to be the class of the national league, for that matter baseball has gone 26 and 16 since may 7th and managed to increase their lead in the n.l. west from 5.35 to 8.5 games. however, they are scoring a run less per game. here's karl ravech and the, evye "baseball tonight" crew.ne. an >> well, the fly in the ointment an anth manny ramirez and paying t. go watch him for the 15,000 orne so people that he did is hene. doesn't do much of anything.ne. he showed up.. ankstill had the dreadlock, but

he didn't hit. >> new york he didn't hit.eryo unfortunately for the people inv anevquerque, the ticket prices aren't nearly as much as they'd been in yankee stadium, but manny ramirez will have a couple more nights there. the key for him in this game was to see some pitch, get the timing down. you can take a whole lot of b.p. in the cage, on the field, but there is nothing like game speed. you see him take a couple pitches, trying to get the timing. there's a good swing he took, the best one of the night. he fouls it straight back. you'd rather see a guy get jammed than be out front. that one ran in under his hands. manny parra is trying to get back to the big leagues. he takes the second pitch at his an, ev at-bat, probably wanting to do something to tease the anevd and maybe go deep. he rolls over it.er. the front foot got down but the , hands came forward.evyone aneveryo part of timing for manny ramirez.yo he'll get some at-bats and beer. right on track.ankseryo >> when do you think he squarese it up?anks, everyo he appeared relaxed because he'e in a zone.er. ks, evers he start hitting the ball?

>> i thinkne before he leaves an albuquerque the fans will haveke something to be happy about. an before he goes home.yo. it won't take very long for him. he's not coming off of an injur. s like some guys guys are having . make sure they feel okay.ks he feels fine.ne i don't think it will take verye long at all. , evon't forget, college world series, l.s.u., texas, one wille be crowned., eryo anks, everow the yankees and ankser around roughly 10:00 p.m. eastern time.erne. and the latest on manny. five innings, three at-bats. >> just a minute or so ago, manny stepped into the cage. we showed you when he was standing outside looking in, and then just as quickly he got inside, ask -- trying to get his swing back. the fans out in albuquerque love it that manny's around. they got little kids running around with the manny wigs and even the governor called it,

what, one of the greatest things for new mexico. there you have it. >> up next, rick sutcliffe to break down alex rodriguez's breakdown. that's next on espnews. - ♪ five - ♪ five dollar

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>> i like what he does on the field. >> the last night of the regular season. >> mike and mike. >> we are "mike and mike in the morning" where all of us at thea

program are very much in favor of the work from home program. it's done a lot of good for a lot of people, buton does it wok for a basketball coach.s it phil jackson talking aboutr a be coaching from home, not going on all the road trips. generally speaking, i think it'. not a very good idea, but with a very select handful of coaches y in sports today, i think it can work and i think phil is in that handful. >> i completely agree.hi the situation does have to bet g right and it starts with the>> . type of coach you are and the t respect you have. han rings says he has plenty of respect.10 and the type of team you have.y you have arguably the best player in the game and he'stypem going to go down as one of the e best all-time. li's like a coach onst of the t jowsm other big-time veterans like derek fisher.ur kurt rambis who would be thee c coach on the road who may takee over for phil when he's done fow another year or so if he goesne that long. so again, the biggest hangup would be if the team is not praying well. ith do you not want your leader not, there? as long as it's not for all 41 of their away games i think it could be managed.ple >> a select few coaches in sports today might be able to

get away with that. w baseball is a different animal, maybe a bobby cox, maybe a tony la russa. it's g ot to be someone who is'st already in the hall of fame and has the hardware, and phil has both of those. we're mike and mike every morning on espn radio and espn 2. >> thanks, guys. espnews, by the way, when wimbledon is on, that's where it is. as for the nba draft, it's tomorrow night on espn. ricky rubio trying to become not just a successful european poi nt guard but the first successful teenage point guard to make the move. >> ricky rubio will be first player that will make everyone feel old first, player drafted born in the year 1990678 ricky, why are you ready to play in the nba? >> because when i am playing in the olympic games, i feel like i'm ready to play here during the season. i was playing and i did well. >> there's been a lot of chatter about teams trying the move up to get you. obviously there's interest in sacramento, memphis, oklahoma

city, minnesota. have you had a chance to look at which team would be the best fit for you? >> i don't know yet. we are talking with all the teams and we are seeing what they want. but everything... every team has good things for me, you know. >> one of the things is if you go to one of these team, playing right away can be pretty tough rather than being on playoff team. how important is it for you to get a lot of minutes right off the bat. >> if i get some team, i won't get minutes, get chance to play with, you know, pressure with my teammates. so we're going to see. >> how are you going to work out your biothat you get here the play next season? >> my agents are working on that, so i don't have to worry. they're going to resolve that. >> so you're very confident that you'll the playing next season in the united states in. >> it's my dream. >> the comparisons to pistol pete mare vich.

you have the similar hair. how fair is that to sort of compare you to one of the greatest basketball players of all time in the united states? >> i don't think that i can compare with him. he was a great player in the nba. he was a scorer. i am not a scorer. i am more a point guard, you know, so it's hard to look like him because i have like 500 d.v.d.sfrom the media who give them to me and then i look like pistol, but the only thing that i look like with the hair. >> top stories coming up in our "aircheck" segment. the guys will debate phil jackson's potential plan of working part-time, just the home games. and the shocker in the world of soccer. u.s. over spain is true, believe that. >> espnews brought to you by:

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