Last time I looked, it was legal to be short. It takes both buyers and sellers to make a viable market. I don't know if there was any intervention or not, but if there was it probably caused a huge transfer of wealth from one group to another. Is this a free market? Did anyone know if the intervention would occur ahead of time? Is this nothing but common thievery if it did occur? Just for the record, I have been out of the markets for some time now, and am merely trying to observe objectively.