SEC Prohibits Naked Shorting of Financial Stocks

IMO buyers and sellers should be treated evenhandedly. I don't see why allowing naked shorting is evenhanded; my concerns with the SEC's move today is primarily with the timing and the limited scope. However, I disfavor the uptick rule; if it is reimposed, it should be balanced with a downtick rule on margin purchases.

IMO the first paragraph of the Journal's "Operation Stocks Go Up Always" is gallows-hilarious; see also the link to portfolio.com:

The most charitable view of this is that the move is political, designed to make it seem like the SEC is Doing Something in the face of all the chaos. But it doesn't look like that: it looks like the SEC is happy signing on to the belief that stocks wouldn't be falling if it weren't for short-sellers. In other words, the Powers That Be don't trust the market, and the SEC has gone from facilitating price discovery to making it harder.

"When people are hurting, the government has got to move."

Hey, fatcats are people too.