Markets decline because there are more sellers than buyers and they go up because there are more buyers than sellers.  In this market, It seems there are a lot of people are selling and for different reasons.

Hey Nationalizing anything is crazy, and Socialistic.  Our local, state and federal goverments are out of control, it is government on steroids.  I can't build a shed without the government being up my rearend and if you disagree with them they hit you with every fine and fee they can invent, I would prefer if the kings men just rode up a took my money.   We are watching the worst time in history, the death of the middle class and the end of liberty, a conerstone of America.  The revolution is near, if we don't fix things soon we are all doomed.  Lets face it we aren't getting of this planet so we better find a way for everyone to live peacefully

Deregulation is fine as long as people are respecting market logic and market rules. In the US with its shareholder value it is all or nothing and predatory marketing with the belief market share is money. Airlines is a classic example with market share being fought at price not servie / product. Wal Mart is the same model with cheap stuff sold on price with the profitability taken out of the system. Anyone remember on what capitalism is based? Communism and Capitalism surrender to the same - greed on the top, corruption - but capitalism offers you the freedom of ideology. With a left wing ideology currently dominating the political landscape, this might just be the playing field for Marxist theorists? Regulation as watchdog is fine - governement control, say Hello to Barney Franks and Chris Dodd - thank you.

Honey....there is nothing left to short.

Mr. Tony, might I ask the difference between "regulation as watchdog is fine" and "government control?" Is the word "regulation" defined differently in the right wing dictionary? Would you also throw a referee on the field and maybe even instant replay?

What happened when the short sale ban ended, nothing because everyone was too busy fleeing the market trying to save what little they had left. For pitt'y sake when the pro's like Bill Fleckenstein state that HE has taken off most of his short positions and is sitting back to see what happens you know it is bad. Moreover, when the ban was instituted it simply pushed short sale traders into the stocks that were not on the list.  

Maybe we should take a lesson from the Chinese brand of justice, execution. I am sick and tired of hearing about what went wrong, I know what went wrong, now it is time to punish those who put those wheels in motion and those who benefited while the rest of us sink to the bottom of the ocean. We know that this will happen again. The idiots who survived this debacle, you know the ones who jumped ship before it all imploded, well they are already looking for the next scheme.

It is a damn sad day when I look at countries such as Venezuela and actually wonder if men like Chavez are not as crazy as he is made out to be. It is a sad day when I wonder if we are the idiots who do not get it. Ladies and gentleman we are on the verge of becoming a socialist country.

In fact, I don't think that you can treat all short selling the same.  A person who feels that a current holding temporarily presents unacceptable risk may wish to hedge that risk without selling the holding.  They can do that by shorting that position or a position that closely approximates it.

However, much of the current shorting is riding the trend of a down market to make a profit.  It sickened me a few days ago to hear a talking head on CNBC talk about shorting the S&P and expecting to wake up to a "Christmas present".  It seems a bit obscene to be pumping taxpayer money into stabilizing the markets, watching real people lose a large portion of their savings, and then watching a talking head on CNBC talk about getting a "Christmas present".  Yes, such shorting is legal and did not cause the crisis.  But those profits come from somewhere.  What good is that shorting doing accept perhaps to teach hard-working people that the market is rigged against them?

For that reason, I've begun to wonder if we shouldn't ban the shorting of all stocks except ones you own.  Is the ability to borrow and sell other people's stock really a right and/or necessary to the market?  If we believe that investors' opinions about future valuations is important to achieve "efficient price discovery", why not let them go to Vegas, bet on those valuations with other willing bettors, and publicize the resulting odds?  In any case, it seems that we should strongly enforce the ban on naked short selling and restore the uptick rule.  This will at least curb the more destructive forms of short selling.

Market Declines: Blame the "long sellers". Not only do 'shorts' preserve capital by profiting from equity declines, but they don't pretend to be whole hearted supporters or investors in companies they don't know anything about and then run for the hills and pull their support out from under the same companies when something goes wrong. How many of people who abandoned their long holdings last week have every intention of repurchasing those shares in the near future. Everyone I know who browoed shares to sell them last week will be repurchasing them sooner or later. By the way, I don't have any such positions. I only participate when there is some challenge to the process.

Ah yes, let's blame the people who sold in panic and took losses, not those who calmly took advantage of the crash to make a profit.  Of course, nearly all people invest in order to make money, not to be a "whole hearted supporter" as you put it.  The difference is that many of them bought the line that they could invest in the American economy and that everyone would gain.  Many will likely now stay out or invest in such a way that they can get out quicker.  Meanwhile, I have no doubt that foreign investors and central banks from whom we are now borrowing about $2 billion a day are looking for alternative investments.  I am of course not blaming the entire crash on short sellers.  But those who piled on after it began doubtlessly made it more severe.  Do you have any problem with enforcing the rule against naked short selling or restoring the uptick rule?

In any event, let's give all participants a say in this matter.  How about if we say that, by default, no shares held by brokerages can be borrowed without the consent of their actual owners?  Then those who believe that short selling is a benefit (like yourself) can notify the brokerage that their shares can be borrowed.  Would you agree to that?

You have to be a masochist to let someone borrow your stock and sell it at a lower price, i.e. unless they pay you more for borrowing it than they can make by driving the price down and giving it back to you. Logically short sellers are thieves. It is the only guaranteed way that Wall Street can syphon the hard earned money of the American people into their pockets everyday. Without short selling, these criminal minded folks would have to actually put on their masks