short scammers, page-14

This is an excerpt from the editorial in the weekend australian which may be of interest

It's time to be alarmed when Ray Schoer, who headed the predecessor to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in the 1980s, says "the integrity of the market is under a cloud because we don't know what the hell is going on". Mr Schoer told The Australian this week that Australia was becoming a "playground" for unscrupulous traders. The effects of this are shown by the extreme market volatility of the past two months, much more volatile than the London and New York markets. Mr Schoer says that to combat this, some of the rules need to be updated to reflect a new era of financial engineering. Some of these products being tested in a bear market did not exist five years ago.

It has been clear for some time that movements on the Australian securities market are at odds with economic fundamentals. Unlike the US, Australia is not headed for recession yet the Australian market has fallen further from its high in November than has the US market. There are signs that, like the Australian dollar market in the past, the relatively small Australian share market is being used as a plaything by global fund managers. In response to the problem, the rules governing the stock market must catch up to properly reflect the new era of financial engineering.