Don't sell short selling short.

• Position: List - Brief article

Robert Sloan, a managing partner at 53 Partners, is the author of Don't Blame the Shorts (McGraw-Hill), which defends the practice of "short selling." Short sellers borrow stock and sell it, ho ping to buy it back at a lower price. Going short lets you profit from downturns, and it is often restricted or banned during them, as it was in late 2008. reason asked Sloan to list three reasons short-selling bans are a bad idea.

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1 Our capital markets are the best because they reflect the greatest spread of information.

Short sellers spread dissenting information about the prospects of companies when the companies want you to think everything is great. Short sellers are in the grand political tradition of dissenters.

2 A ban on short selling is like a ban on capital...