Ayn Rand Center: Drop the SEC Investigation Against Cuban
December 4, 2008 by Stephen Anderson
Filed under Guest Articles, Principle 11
ARC, Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights | Billionaire Mark Cuban is under investigation for “insider trading” by the SEC.
“This case is a travesty,” said Alex Epstein, an analyst at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. “Cuban is accused of selling his stock in Mamma.com after the CEO told Cuban that the company would be making a new stock offering that Cuban thought was a bad idea. But there is nothing wrong with this whatsoever–unless Cuban had a contractual obligation or fiduciary duty not to act on the information. And if Cuban violated a contract, which there is no evidence of, then that is the injured party’s–the company’s–job to pursue, not the SEC’s. In all likelihood, if there is anyone who violated a contractual obligation, it is the CEO who divulged confidential, unsolicited information–not the famous billionaire recipient who just happens to make a juicy target for SEC bureaucrats thirsting for another high-profile case to justify their regulatory power.
“The question of ‘insider trading’–when employees and investors of a company can act on certain information–should be left entirely up to private contract, such as restrictions on CEOs shorting their own stock. The criminalization of ‘insider trading’ has authorized the SEC to terrorize those whose only sin was to be a savvy investor. The Mark Cubans of the world deserve to be left free to make investment decisions under a government with clear laws against force, fraud, and breach of contract–not to spend years of their lives enduring witch hunts and prisons.”>>>>Read the Full Article
Why is the government involved in this case? What purpose does it serve? It is one more step in the direction of economic slavery. The government sees it as its role in protecting the economy (from what? no answer). By what right can one man tell another man how he can and cannot dispose of his own property? Since government is simply a group of men with legal authority, what is really being asked is: by what right does the government have to tell a citizen how it can or cannot manipulate his property?
The Mark Cubans are the great investors in our economy. It is upon their shoulders that so much depends. Yet, foolish men in government think that ransacking his fortunes will help with their deficit (and boost bureaucratic moral!?!). All they are really doing is violating rights, and therefore assuring our doom.