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The reason for the stock market to exist is ostensibly to help businesses succeed by competing for investors. But at the moment we have a casino, and shorts ar

The reason for the stock market to exist is ostensibly to help businesses succeed by competing for investors. But at the moment we have a casino, and shorts are one manifestation of that fact. Short sellers are effectively betting against the success of a company, which gives them an incentive to do everything in their power to put that company out of business. And don't say "but that's illegal!" since our enforcement system has no teeth and big players commit crimes all the time whenever the fines are lower than the cost of legal alternatives.

ashtonkem 6y ago
> Short sellers are effectively betting against the success of a company And when a company is overvalued or committing fraud, that is a good thing. Stopping a bubble from growing is how you reduce the harm inflicted on regular investors. > which gives them an incentive to do everything in their power to put that company out of business And the long position is incentivized to hype up a business up to and beyond the line of fraud. Both sides of a financial transaction can perform their duties fairly, or corruptly. Life is not so simple as to declare only one party the problem.