Author Topic: SEC Ban Bandages a Bullet Wound  (Read 1428 times)

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Offline Duke Nukum

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SEC Ban Bandages a Bullet Wound
« on: September 22, 2008, 09:04:00 PM »
SEC Ban Bandages a Bullet Wound
by Michael Shulman   09/22/08

Shorting stocks almost has a sexiness surrounding it -- if anything remotely related to investing and trading could be considered sexy.

It tends to evoke images of men in suspenders with cigars and whiskey snifters, discussing what company they should kill next in the stock market.

Unfortunately, this image was sharpened this past week as the U.S. Fed, the British Parliament and the Australian government outlawed some or all shorting to protect over-leveraged or fundamentally lousy financial institutions from what they said were unfair attacks on their stocks.

To that, all I have to say is this: Remember how well Prohibition worked out the last time the government outright banned something that subjective public officials decided was bad?

That action bred even more destructive behavior, and the real criminals still profited while the innocents went under as rum-running goons grew rich, branched out into other industries and brought their corruption with them.

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“A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time”
― Homer, The Odyssey