By definition our stock markets are "free markets",atleast that's the way it use to be.
But now the corruption and manipulation by the central bank and government is so blatant traders talk about it openly.
A definition on Wikipedia listed in "Stock Exchange"
"Supply and demand in stock markets is driven by various factors which, as in all free markets, affect the price of stocks.
Stock Exchange Definition
At about 2 minutes into the video the conversation turns to the government intervention in the US securities markets. The trader talks about daily intervention,a common event. That is unheard of,and only possible in a national emergency,but even then it would need approval at the highest level.
Ever since the stock market crash of 1987 there has been rumors of a "plunge protection team or better known as the "PPT". Put in place by then President Ronald Reagan and engineered by the New York Federal Reserve with some of the biggest investment banks.
On June 12,2009 the ZeroHedge blog broke a story that State Street had been trading for the Federal Reserve account and manipulating,supporting the U.S. Stock Market.
The story got little traction as this is illegal and such a intervention would have negative effects around the world.
But now it seems that the cat's out of the bag and this video is a real problem for the government.
One thing is if this was proven true,the class action suit brought for damages would be staggering and yes I would be in line.
Has the U.S. markets become third worldish just to temperarily pump up a floundering economy?
If it is true, the implications would be staggering for the health of our economy long term.
Link to Story
Zero Hedge Blog
"It is no surprise that in order to incite a return to pre-Lehman economic levels (the administration's #1 goal bar none), not only the stock market would have to much higher from its March lows (a task largely accomplished through market increases on disappearing breadth, liquidity extraction by the likes of Goldman Sachs, and assorted last minute inexplicalbe ramp ups in the various futures and ETF markets), but also the shadow system would have to be back with a vengeance. And while new mechanisms to achieve this such as securitization replacement alphabet soups have yet to prove their efficacy, the real heart of the shadow banking system Frankenstein is and has always been the repo market."
"Which is why we were greatly troubled when we learned recently on good authority that Federal representatives may have opened multiple undisclosed-type accounts with none other than State Street Global Advisors over the past few months. All of these accounts are allegedly handled by one single trader, who is cocooned and isolated from interaction with other partners."