Wow!! I don't know how serious of a problem naked short selling is, but the large number of exclamation points in this article causes me to question how seriously I should take it!!!! The alarmist tone reminds me of articles found in Weekly World News!!!
Yes.
And another red flag that this issue is being hyped is the singling out and attack on individual staffers at the SEC instead of focusing on policy arguments - "tax paid government employee Annette Nazareth." While I certainly haven't agreed with every idea that comes out of the SEC staff, the senior people are by and large excellent people that work very hard in good faith to serve the public interest, and people like Ms. Nazareth could have left years ago to make multiples of her salary at a private law firm.
And if the same plaintiff lawyers who brought us the wonderful Tobacco settlement are pushing these "naked short" cases, one should be on guard for an enormous amount of hype as these vultures look for their next deep pocket to soak.