Libertarian Economics In A Nutshell

The Futile Stupidity of Laws Against “Short Selling” « International Liberty:

"The bans on short selling are classic examples of Mitchell’s Law. Politicians do stupid things such as bad monetary policy and corrupt housing subsidies. Those misguided policies cause bubbles that eventually pop. But rather than learn that bad policies are foolish, they use the economic damage as an excuse to implement additional forms of intervention such as short-selling bans. The only constant is that the political class gains more power and control.

* Caveat: I’m only commenting on public policy, not how you should invest your money. I’m only a policy wonk. I know less about financial markets than Barack Obama knows about economics"

The thing that I find most baffling about so many conservatives is that they will make perfect sense for 90% of an argument and then completely fuck away their credibility with BS like this. The bulk of the article this is pulled from is quite sensible and I do agree that restrictions on short selling are stupid and pointless. There was absolutely nothing to be gained by adding these two paragraphs at the end of the article other than to have a little red meat in it.