Bill Black: Wall Street: It’s “Icky and Un-American” to ‘Short’ Frauds

The “shorts” are not saints and it is a travesty that we celebrate the shorts in books and movies and ignore the whistleblowers and regulators who warned about the fraud epidemics and sought to prevent them – not profit from them.  Honest “shorts,” however, are not “icky and un-American.”  Honest shorts do the Nation, the public, and the world a service.  They do honest firms a service by helping to drive frauds out of business, which allows honest firms to prosper.  The shorts are neither saints nor sinners.  It is revealing and revolting that the head of the NYSE attacks them as “icky and un-American” while ignoring rather than condemning the frauds led by the CEOs of the firms listed on his exchange that become wealthy by defrauding investors.  It is telling that the CEOs of those listed firms fear the “shorts” far more than the NYSE.  Worse, the head of the NYSE is making common cause with the fraudulent CEOs of listed companies who have enlisted the NYSE to try to squash the honest ‘shorts’ that the elite frauds fear will alert the public to their frauds.

New Economic Perspectives

Bill Black: Wall Street: It’s “Icky and Un-American” to ‘Short’ Frauds