Nope. My opinion on short-selling is, let's say, nuanced, but in this case I was making strictly a technical analogy. It feels to me like this type of corrupti

Nope. My opinion on short-selling is, let's say, nuanced, but in this case I was making strictly a technical analogy. It feels to me like this type of corruption is a temporal play in which you "lend" your influence in the present to somebody. Using your influence they pass legislation/regulation etc. that yields them lots of money in the future. Once you leave office, the people that you lent your influence to will pay you back with the proceeds they obtained while they were making use of your influence. The more "standard" type of corruption (the kind people in nice suits usually think of when they say "corruption") doesn't involve a temporal play. You get money in the present for using your influence directly in order to benefit the people who paid you, also in the present/near future. Perhaps my analogy to short selling is not fully accurate, but this is kind of how it feels to me.