A View From Middle England - Conservative with a slight libertarian touch - For Christian charity and traditional belief - Free Enterprise NOT Covert Corporatism

Friday, August 12, 2011

France bans short-selling on bank stocks

Making a fast buck out of others misery
France has decided to act against the speculators and ban short-selling on shares in their banks. Societe Generale suffered from the actions of these spivs when ill-founded rumours swept the stock exchanges of the world. It should be that a company is valued by its performance, by the profits it makes on generating good business. These speculators care neither for good performance or sudden disaster. They just bet on whether the share price will fall. Of course, that's helped if they can oil the rumour mill. I'm glad the French government has acted. These leaches are like ticket touts or gambling den bosses. Not much help to society. They just help themselves. I'm drifting off in a direction but that's probably a bit mean. These speculators don't normally move out of their seats, so can't cause direct mayhem.

Italy, Spain and Belgium have joined the French in a ban. But the sad thing is it's only for a couple of weeks. When they lift the ban the speculators will be back on form. And Societe Generale will be back defending themselves. Chief executive Frederic Oudea said the speculation about his bank was "absolutely rubbish". He went on to say, "People are scared, so the tiniest information touches off irrational fears. To our clients, we have to tell them that these rumours are baseless and that they can have confidence in Societe Generale."

I'm in favour of free enterprise and entrepreneurial activity. Basically, be rewarded for taking risks, working hard and contributing to society. The short-sellers are only in it for themselves. They are gamblers. It's the nasty side of capitalism. We could do with a permanent ban.

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