My 2 cents on the SEC talk on altering the short selling rules:
Short sellers (SS) didn’t get people to buy homes with no money down, SS didn’t convince people to buy homes with teaser rates, SS didn’t convince people to lie about their income on their mortgage applications, SS didn’t tell banks/brokers to lever up to such huge levels, SS didn’t tell Greenspan to cut rates to 1% and leave it there, SS didn’t invent FNM and FRE, SS didn’t tell the OTS, OCC, FDIC, Fed, SEC, FFIEC, FTC, FHFA and all the state regulators to twiddle their thumbs all day, SS didn’t tell the rating agencies to rate AAA on anything that moved, SS didn’t tell banks to lend to commercial real estate investors on a property where the rent didn’t cover the mortgage payment, SS didn’t tell the average consumer to spend more money than they make and borrow difference.
Short selling is a legitimate form of speculation that fully enhances market liquidity and price discovery.
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