Nobody loves a party pooper and the shorts-investors who bet on falling prices-are the ultimate poopers. If you want proof, look at the financial crisis of late 2008. Chief executives of investment banks, who had made their fortunes out of free markets, suddenly called for trading restrictions. They had spent years lending stocks to hedge funds so they could speculate against overvalued companies. But when it came to investors shorting their own shares, the banks embraced government regulation.
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