Do politicians render misleading media releases to trigger stock market crashes and manipulate the market?
552119
They certainly render misleading media releases, though my personal presumtion is that that is more for their own benefit (e.g. playing down a story, playing up an achievement - anything to make them look good.)\nWhether a government as a whole (rather than an individual politician) would do similar to manipulate the market I'm not so sure. Having said that, I wouldn't put it past them.
1083026
No.  The wilfully ignorant (like "cynicusprime") will never accept the facts until it affects them personally, either by the collapse of the US economy, or a draft. \n\nBut since either or both of those are coming....
351453
Absolutely - otherwise there wouldn't be any bad news in the world. Thats the whole point of the 'news'.\n\nNow if what they're saying is a lie, you can sue them for slander.
904424
Politicians distorting the truth?  Unfortunately very common.\n\nDemocrats claim to support the troops yet are quick to try to invalidate their votes.\n\nClearly the Democrats know who the troops support.
983646
i don,t believe so.  one is stupidity and one in immoral.  i don,t think that politicians know the difference.  they all seem to be able to lie about anything and everything. there a just a few who seem honest and trustworthy, but, maybe they just haven't been caught.
571256
The goverment has concealed things from the public since it's formation. Cover stories and diversion stories are created daily. With today's instant communications technology, it's not as easy. And it's not always with evil intent. For example, when the 911 incident occurred, the idea was that the least truthful information released to the public the better, so as not to create panic over possible future or more attacks that law enforcement had no advance knowledge of where it would occur, even though they told us it highly probable it would. The theory is tell the public the least information possible with plausible deniability. If that isn't possible, and real information for the safety of the public is available, release it according to its weight against negative panic and fear that it may cause. The least the better is rule of thumb in goverment.
748873
But while some investors are concerned the Democrats may be unfriendly to certain industries, such as pharmaceutical makers and oil producers, others seem comfortable with the idea of gridlock in the nation's capital. If the Democrats win the House, "we'll have a stagnated government without a lot of new regulations from Congress, and that could be good for business," said Charles Rotblut, senior market analyst at Zacks Investment Research.\nwsj.com \n\nDespite 'market friendly' Republican policies, stocks rise more and volatility dips under Democrats.\n\nBut here's Wall Street's strange little irony -- studies show the stock market performs better and tends to be less volatile when Democrats are in power.\nhttp://money.cnn.com/2004/01/21/markets/election_demsvreps/
276778
the media greatly affects what people think. for example, if someone relies on the media for all their news, and the media omits something like: everyone is rioting at the president and changes it to everyone is fully behind the president it affects a persons bias. now in all fairness not all media are like this, but sometimes they fudge the truth (especially if they are corparatley owned and the government is giving them big multimillion/billion $ contracts, that encourages them to support the government. Ex. GE owns NBC, and GE takes multimillion dollar contracts from the government because of the war in iraq, so on nbc they'll be more supportive of the war. yes, they'll show the negatives sides so they can look fair and balanced, but in reality it is a deception.)
744268
Hi David\n\nI don't think fraud would do it but I think misappropriation of funds would possibly do the trick, and a few of the juicy niceties from the Companies Act and associated legislation would not go amiss.
34284
If someone breaks laws controlling campaign contributions they can receive legally punishment as long as the statute of limitations has not expired.  \n\nThat said, the politician who refunds such moneys is making a marketing statement, demonstrating that they support the laws and are above such incentives.  If that were really so, they would not have accepted such funds (legal or not).  Those who lay down with dogs get up with fleas.
663144
Listen up, you are all naive individuals who have no clue of current events outside your country. You ONLY rely and depend on your newspaper or TV. You need to get your @sses in these places and find the truth your self. Just because somebody (government) tells you something DOES NOT mean it is true. Idiots.
266512
1).  Little to no responsibility over the information released on news sources and the internet --> false information and easier ways to gain access to illegal materials.\n\n2).  Uncontrolled media --> masses reacting to uncensored material.  For example, with the threat of the Bird Flu, economies are going bust even though the actual threat may be minimal.
12163
For misleading us into war, yes.\nFor lying to Congress about the Medicare bill, maybe.\nFor breaking the law regulating spying on Americans, certainly.
679818
It happens very much, I am convinced. I come to this conclusion since it would be extremely simple to hide.\n\nJust think about the following scenario:\n\nConsider that you work for a company, and you are privy to insider information. You just found out that a huge announcement is going to coming out that will greatly affect you company's stock price (either up or down, either way you can make money).\n\nJust call up your buddy that lives half way across the country, someone that you could trust with a large amount of money, get him to buy some stock in his name, using your money, and agree to let him have 10% of the profits.\n\nHe can't lose, he invests your money, and gets 10% of the profits. You probably can't lose, because what you know is a sure thing, and the chances of being caught in this sort of situation is negligible.\n\nIf the person doesn't brag about it, and his buddy doesn't brag about it, it will never get on the radar screen.\n\nGiven that it is this easy, I imagine that there must be tons of it going on under the radar.\n\nWarning! Kids, don't try this at home - it is illegal and immoral and will cause you to go blind!
859045
No, rather a hugely misused tool.\n\nThat said, politicians and media are getting away with misusing statistics because they *and* Mr and Mrs John Public don't have the elementary notions of statistics needed to distinguish between the good, the bad and the ugly.
1056777
To answer a part of your quesiton, the media plays to the flavor of the week crowd.  They care not the validity or weight of a story.  The only relevant thing to news media is telling the news that sells subscriptions/viewers/readers.
575195
No\n\nU will ruin any credibility u may have.  This is done more often than one would suspect