May 5, 2009
Professionals and broker-dealers have a selfish interest in stopping the proposed rules: Big money, hedge funds and other "professionals" have enjoyed the opportunity to rob the rest of us with their rapid destruction of stock prices. Broker-dealers loved the big commissions and the forced liquidation of our holdings at low prices if we were unfortunate enough to be on margin. This robbery sanctioned by the government is unfair to the small investors and it should cease. So called "academics" are just plain naive if they truly believe that freedom from regulation is a good thing: There are too many crooks that would take advantage and had taken advantage of unlimited short selling. Notice what has happened in the last two years.