Working Group on Financial Markets

The Working Group on Financial Markets (also, President's Working Group on Financial Markets or the Working Group) was created by Executive Order 12631,^[1] signed on March 18, 1988 by United States President Ronald Reagan. The Group was established explicitly in response to events in the financial markets surrounding October 19, 1987 ("Black Monday") to give recommendations for legislative and private sector solutions for "enhancing the integrity, efficiency, orderliness, and competitiveness of [United States] financial markets and maintaining investor confidence".^[1] As established by Executive Order 12631, the Working Group consists of:

• The Secretary of the Treasury, or his designee (as Chairman of the Working Group);
• The Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or his designee;
• The Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or his designee; and
• The Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or her designee.

"Plunge Protection Team"

One theory regarding the Working Group refers to it as the Plunge Protection Team. This theory claims that the Working Group is a scheme to manipulate U.S. stock markets in the event of a market crash by using government funds to buy stocks, or other instruments such as stock index futures. The term "Plunge Protection Team" was originally the headline for an article in The Washington Post by staff writer Brett D. Fromson, published on Sunday, February 23, 1997.^[2] He did not invent the term. It was added later by a copy desk editor as a sensational nickname for the Working Group.^[3]

Notes

See also

• Government financial reports
• Single Audit
• Government Accountability Office,
• Revenue (bottom line vs. "top line")
• Government-owned corporation
• Budget theory
• Comprehensive income
• Permanent fund
• Public company
• Crony capitalism
• Government Accountability Office investigations of the Department of Defense
• Federal Accountability Act(Canada)

External links

• Published Working Group reports:
  • Hedge Funds, Leverage, and the Lessons of Long-Term Capital Management April 1999
  • Over-the-Counter Derivatives Markets and the Commodity Exchange Act November 1999
  • Terrorism Risk Insurance September 2006
• "Plunge Protection Team" claims:
  • Treasury's Paulson Plays with the Plunge Protectors by 'John Crudele' in New York Post, October 26, 2006
  • Hey Hank, Let's Sit Down and Chat about Things by John Crudele, August 9, 2007 New York Post followup to the above article
  • "General Motors, Market Engineering, and Confidence 'Protection'"
  • "The Invisible Hand (of the U.S. Government) in Financial Markets" by Robert Bell
• "Plunge Protection Team" counterclaims:
  • The Plunge Protection Team, by John Mauldin
  • The Stock Market's Da Vinci Code, by Jonathan Moreland
  • I Am Not Now, and Have Never Been, a PPT Member: Caroline Baum, by C. Baum
  • A commentary on Caroline Baum's article, by Jacob at the "Everyone's Illusion" blog site
  • Plunge Protection Team, Is It Real ... Does It Work?, by James A. Shepherd
  • A debate: Does the Plunge Protection Team Exist?