Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The Phony-Baloney Naked Short Selling 'Problem'

I'm a little late with this, but I guess it's better late than never: John Hempton's terrific post on the harmfulness of the naked shorting crackdown is making the rounds of the Internet. The original can be found at John's blog, here.

One of John's more interesting points is that the crackdown on this phantom "problem" is costing taxpayers a billion dollars.

An excerpt:
. . . in pursuing the bogus issue of naked short selling not only has the SEC diverted resources from its real job (which is chasing the real crims in the financial market such as Madoff) but it has imposed significant and real costs on the taxpayer and made it harder and more expensive for banks to raise capital in a financial crisis.
Well worth reading, and a fresh viewpoint in an increasingly wearisome debate, which has pitted a wacky Utah billionaire (you-know-who) against his arch-enemy, "common sense."

© 2009 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

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