Short Selling

The recent crap about short selling really has me scratching my head. There is not way that the short sellers caused the recent problems in the financial markets and much more likely are a reaction to the utter bullshit some company CEOs were coming out with.

It is perfectly normal with a balanced hedging strategy to go long in some stock or securities and short in other complimentary stocks or securities. The idea being to more granularly manage your exposure.

The guy who short sold Lehmans simply did not believe what he was being told by the Lehman's management and decided they were in big trouble and backed that hunch with a large short position. Remember that when you take up a short position your potential profits are capped, the price cannot fall lower then zero after all, but your potential liability is unlimited. Being "caught short" in this situation can be very very painful.

Shorting is necessary tool in an investors arsenal and simply banning the practice in a knee jerk way will have as yet unforeseen negative consequences.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/alex_singleton/blog/2008/09/18/short_selling_helped_promote_truth_about_hbos_and_lehman_brothers

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Short-Selling-A-Guide/Article/200809315102892?lpos=Business_First_Buisness_Article_Teaser_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15102892_Short_Selling_A_Guide

Ireland Restores Democracy in Europe

Ireland Restores Democracy in Europe?


Well yes I suppose they did but not for any unselfish reasons. The Irish "Celtic Tiger" economy is in the shitter and the supply of EU money to fund the ever expanding Irish infrastructure has dried up. The question was simple when the Irish voted on Maastrict, do you want 8 billion euros from the Eu or not. No brainer. Now that Ireland's economy is fast dissappearing down the shitter time have changed.

I am writing this from Ireland at the moment and the coverage is something to see. Virtually the whole political elite, the media and the Irish owned newspapers exhorted the people to vote Yes an still they voted No.

Personally I am pleased with this result and I think it was an absolute disgrace that the quisling politicians in the UK denied the UK population a vote on this important treaty. Well Gordon it looks pretty fucked now anyway, shame.

'Fewer hurricanes' as world warms

I am pretty sure if this research had discovered that there would be more frequent and more intense hurricanes due to a warming world it would have hit the front pages everywhere.

But no you need to mine quite deeply on the BBC news web site to find this one.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7404846.stm