"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety." -Ben Franklin But seriously there's no reason

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety." -Ben Franklin But seriously there's no reason to get so strident about it these days. Because of rational pricing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_pricing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_pricing), it's extremely doubtful you could find a single economist at a respectable institution who thinks shorting is bad. In a sense, it's such a abstract issue that I can never see a politician stirring populist sentiment against the sober advice of economic policy advisors. It's simply a short term fail-safe to give politicians time to act.