"Simply stated, China is too big of a player in the world economic to manipulate their currency."
VOA: standard.2010.03.23
Robotic surrogates that offer paralyzed people the freedom to explore their environment, manipulate objects or simply fetch things has been the holy grail of BCI research for a long time.
Maybe not brilliant like Walt, but he understands people and sees behind the surface much more clearly than Walt, and uses that knowledge to try to do good rather than simply to manipulate.
The t heory that the article was simply an attempt to manipulate the stock lower and allow a short to get out (the author was short) makes the most sense to me.