by smallpoxgirl » Fri 19 Sep 2008, 10:28:39
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GreyGhost', 'W')hat's the big deal about this? Why should you have the right to sell something you don't even own?
The reason it's important is that the markets are supposed to be about price discovery for companies as much as anything. It's a see-saw between bears and bulls. Some think it's worth more, and they buy the stock. Some think it's worth less and they short the stock. Between them, they establish a fair value for the stock.
If a company has value, then they aren't particularly susceptible to short selling and the short sellers end up pumping free money into the market. Short selling only works, when a stock is over-bought and the stock price exceeds company's value.
This is a typical Bush administration kind of move. "If you won't tell us what we want to hear, then you can't participate in the process." It's the roach motel approach to building stock prices. If nobody can push prices down, then they have to go up. Right? Well certainly they will for a while, but the stock price will become(even more) disconnected from the actual value of the company. The more disconnected the prices become from the actual value of the companies, the greater the potential for nasty corrections and panics becomes. These companies are all going to eventually become bankrupt. They are heavily invested in an asset class that is dropping like a stone. There is no evidence of a bottom in the housing market. That reality is unpleasant, but it's real. This whole week has been one huge denial process. Everyone is scrambling to figure out how we can deny reality for another day. Every move we make to deny reality makes the eventual outcome that much worse. Every time we try to bail one of these companies out, we make the problem worse. Playing make-believe with the stock markets makes the problem worse. It doesn't make it go away, it just gives it longer to fester. You can try to cover over your termite infested wall with wallpaper and make it look pretty, but eventually your house will fall down. Ripping open the wall, cleaning out the rotted material, and replacing the structure makes a big mess, but it's the only way you end up with a sound place to live.
This is a historic day. September 19, 2008 will end up in a history book somewhere as the day the SEC banned short selling to try to stem the stock crash of 2008.