July 27, 2008
It is long past time for the SEC to protect the average investor and vigorously enforce the laws and regulations against naked shorting. Shorting without identifying and borrowing actual shares is a gross violation of the property rights of the corporation whose shares are being shorted and of the shareholders who are the rightful owners of any and all shares of that corporation. In effect, the practitioners of this act are creating shares out of thin air, something that lawfully can only be done by a vote of the existing shareholders. When one is considering investing in a particular company, the number of shares outstanding is an important parameter. Allowing shadowy outside parties to alter this number makes considered investment decisions almost impossible.
The recent SEC action to selectively enforce the law only for the shares of 19 financial companies is lacking in any logical consistency. It is no more acceptable than the police deciding to protect certain houses aginst burglary, but not others. The shareholders of all publically traded companies are entitled to equal protection ubder the law.