Market Making and Greed


1.      Ban Short-Selling in Market Making to save the MMs and contain systemic risk
Market makers (MMs) provide a very useful service if they simply balance the buy and sell orders of a day and receive a commission for the service.   If, however, MMs (their proxy hedge funds and investment banks) are allowed to sell securities short, they will be vulnerable to their own failure causing systemic risk to society.  Vulnerability induces MMs to rig the market, even by unscrupulous means.  Rigging causes cycles of euphoria (boom) and panics (bust) which lead to continual depression in the capital markets. 
2.      Policies on Containing Greed
Both the honorable presidential candidates, who represent the aspirations of the vast majority of Americans, have expressed that greed is the principal driving cause of the current financial crisis. One may claim that greed caused the financial crisis despite good policies.  Or, greed is behind the bad policies that led to the catastrophe.  In either case, it behooves us to probe for the root cause of pervasive greed. 

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