Accidentally Released – and Incredibly Embarrassing – Documents Show How Goldman et al Engaged in ‘Naked Short Selling’ | Matt Taibbi – Rolling Stone

In other words, 107% of all Overstock shares available for trade were short – a physical impossibility, unless someone was somehow creating artificial supply in the stock.

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You can read the actual motion here. Pay attention to pages 14 – 18.

You can see an amazingly accessible discussion about the practice of ‘naked short selling’ and why you should be pissed by the CEO of Overstock.com, here.

An Insider’s Notes On The Shabby Death Of The Seattle SuperSonics

I usually arrived at work before most of the staff. On some days, I could wander across the office to get my coffee without seeing anyone. But strangely, that morning, the team’s communications guru, was already there. He pulled me aside. “Be prepared to have a terrible day,” he said. “I can’t tell you any more—you’ll know soon enough. But I’m telling you as a friend, this is going to be a really rough day.”

I went back to my desk trying to decipher what he meant. Soon, my phone rang. On the other end was a member of the operations team: “Jeremy, you need to do something for me. You need to grab the championship trophies. Polish them until they’re spotless and bring them to the Furtado Center [the team’s training facility]. I can’t tell you why, you just need to do it now.”

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Maria Bamford interview: A conversation about mental illness and stand-up comedy.

Bamford: No, no, it was my idea. I was terrified, because it was this motorcycle club in Duluth—a pretty low-key motorcycle club, because Minnesotans aren’t too rowdy, but I was scared. So I was like, “Dad, would you please open for me?” And my dad loves me, and so he worked out his bits.

Slate: It was all his own material.

Bamford: Yeah. I think it was about six to seven minutes. He bombed and then I bombed. It was a family affair.

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