Yay, Germany - I think

The Germans decided to ban the practice of Naked Short Selling when it comes to European Gov't debt, and a lot of the snakes on streets named Fleet and Wall have their panties in a bunch because of it.

The way I understand it is that short selling is a necessary aspect of keeping the markets "honest" - or at least as honest as some of these assholes are willing to let it be.  But anyway, shorting is a time-honored device that lets me borrow shares of a company's stock, sell them at a price below current market value, and then buy them back when the market price goes down.  Usually, "shorting" is a bet that the market in general, or the price for that particular stock is heading down.  And it's a good thing to have because it can be a safety valve.  Properly applied, short selling can help prevent bubbles.  But if you do it on a big enough scale, you can actually force the price(s) down, and then shorting becomes just another means of manipulation and speculation.  And that's where Naked Shorting comes in.

Naked Shorting (to my mind) is really just a statement that you want the price of something to be a lot lower.  You've not borrowed the stock or the bond or whatever - and so you're not risking your own money- but you're saying you'll sell it at a price well short of the current asking price if others are interested in buying it.  This creates a kind or impromptu consortium of players which dramatically multiplies your market power.

So I'm a little uneasy about shorting because like any other useful tool it can be a weapon of malice, causing undue harm to good companies (and the PEOPLE who make up those companies) solely in the name of turning a few extra profit points for guys who never actually produced anything in their lives.  Don't get me wrong - bankers and brokers are necessary to a healthy economy, but when they elevate themselves above it, they become threats to the system and have to be beaten back.

When you sell something that doesn't belong to you, we call it fraud and you're supposed to go to jail for that.