How do we do that? Let’s take Citi as an example. Put a tender out there to purchase X amount of Citi shares at $20 a share. This will put a real short squeze and clean many of the greedy short sellers. They will think twice from shorting and creating false rumors in the future. And we will have more orderly market.

BTW, I don’t own Citi shares.

It seems that they are really abusing the system and make their finances look bad to US while outside of US they are buying others.

Tom Krebsbach

“FERGUSON: I think it’s not been enough, because the losses are still much bigger than anybody’s acknowledged. If you figure out how much has been lost — the Bank of England came up with a ballpark figure for the global financial system of $2.8 trillion. Well, the write-downs that have been acknowledged so far are a fraction of that.

“So, part of the problem is the banks don’t trust one another, because they know that there are many more bodies buried out there than have yet been exhumed.”

If part of the problem is bank trust, then the core of that problem is lack of transparency. As Neil Rackham puts it “the deeper you see, the more you trust”. Conversely, the less you see, the less you trust.

Here we go again with “Project Chicken”: nobody owning up about their problem in the hope it will soon be dwarfed by someone else’s much bigger one.

You cannot make people come clean about problems. Attempts to do so generate denial and hostility. Direct challenges will most likely trigger defences and result in greater obfuscation. No force or ultimatum or major argument is going to work.

All you can do is create an environment where it is safe to talk by listening, by being someone who can be trusted to listen. People have to come to the decision that it is a mistake to continue to cover up problems. Few people can do that in an environment where others insist they were wrong to do so in the first place. Our first instinct is to protect ourselves. We need a place to go that is secure.

Messengers, traditionally, get shot. So when people start having doubts about keeping silent, provide an alternative. When they call and want to talk don’t be surprised, be supportive. Find out if they feel threatened. Get them to talk about it. What effect is it having on them? Does it make sense? Don’t use their confusion to flood them with information. You can ask them about the specifics, but realize that they have a lot to think about. It can take some time. Give them space. Let them ask for information or find out themselves.

It is inner conflict that overcomes conspiracies of silence. If people want to talk, get them talking. Have them describe their experiences, good and bad. Talk helps if the listener is non-judgmental. These kinds of discussions – getting people to think about what they have experienced and observed as compared to what they have been taught and led to believe – are the key to breaking the spell they are under.

This is all very well on a one-on-one basis but how do you create an environment that is safe to talk on a grand scale? Well, that’s what my web-based groupware, a Yala, is about.