What's the Government's Shadowy "Plunge Protection Team" Doing as Lehman Tanks?

I often think about the alphabet of the financial crisis. There's a lexicon of terms like plunder -- I wrote a book taking off on that idea -- but, also related "P words" like pricing, panic and plunge.

I think of that last one as in falling off a cliff. And the dictionary sort of backs me up:

plunge |pl_nj|

verb

1 [ intrans. ] jump or dive quickly and energetically : our daughters whooped as they plunged into the sea.

o fall suddenly and uncontrollably : a car swerved to avoid a bus and plunged into a ravine.

o embark impetuously on a speech or course of action : overconfident researchers who plunge ahead.

o suffer a rapid decrease in value : their fourth-quarter operating profit plunged 25%.

There are many experts who see this happening today as the markets plunge in value with banks going down and very little going up except prices, foreclosures and unemployment.

Did you know that your government has machinery in place to deal with plunges? It was founded during the heady days of mourning in America -- during the Reagan Administration.

It was back in l987 when the former movie-star-in-chief signed on an Executive Order his administration drafted for him. The "Working Group" it set up was quickly labeled the PLUNGE PROTECTION TEAM (PPT).

As the government in effect takes over mortgage giants and wrestles over what to do about the collapse of huge investment banks like Lehman Brothers, with more to come, you know they are on alert 24/7 scrambling to put more fingers in the dyke. (Over the past weekend, the Fed and Treasury Secretary warned the banks to clean up Lehman's mess or they could be next. As of Sunday, there was no deal and one of American's oldest investment banks faces liquidation.)

There is a mechanism in place to avoid this type of crisis. In theory! Here are their overt marching orders; the covert mission is still shadowy.

Executive Order 12631 -- Working Group on Financial Markets

Section 1. Establishment. (a) There is hereby established a Working Group on Financial Markets (Working Group). The Working Group shall be composed of:

(1) the Secretary of the Treasury, or his designee;

(2) the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or his designee;

(3) the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or his designee; and

(4) the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or her designee.

(b) The Secretary of the Treasury, or his designee, shall be the Chairman of the Working Group.

Sec. 2. Purposes and Functions. (a) Recognizing the goals of enhancing the integrity, efficiency, orderliness, and competitiveness of our Nation's financial markets and maintaining investor confidence, the Working Group shall identify and consider:

(1) the major issues raised by the numerous studies on the events in the financial markets surrounding October 19, 1987, and any of those recommendations that have the potential to achieve the goals noted above; and

(2) the actions, including governmental actions under existing laws and regulations (such as policy coordination and contingency planning), that are appropriate to carry out these recommendations.

(b) The Working Group shall consult, as appropriate, with representatives of the various exchanges, clearinghouses, self-regulatory bodies, and with major market participants to determine private sector solutions wherever possible.

(c) The Working Group shall report to the President initially within 60 days (and periodically thereafter) on its progress and, if appropriate, its views on any recommended legislative changes.

In actual fact, this secret branch of government has a sophisticated war room using every state of the art technology to monitor markets worldwide. It has emergency powers. It doesn't keep minutes. There is no freedom of information access to its deliberations. There are 147,000 entries in Google on this powerful body but I could only access 10.