# Short-selling sold short
O noez! The spivs and speculators iz comin' back! Short-selling will be allowed again after being suspended last year when people thought that naughty speculators were causing banks to collapse. However:
Short-selling was also blamed for steep falls in HBOS shares and trading in the stock was subject to an FSA investigation last year.
Yet the regulator found no evidence that rumours were spread about the bank in a bid to manipulate its share price.
It probably wouldn't surprise anyone if there were some dodgy goings-on, but I think it's also pretty obvious that the ban had as much to do with finding scapegoats and deflecting blame as anything else.
File under: world : {2009.01.06 - 00:03}
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