Tinkering with the rules doesnt really fix things :rolleyes:
The possible return of the
"uptick" restriction on shortsellers
of shares and the prospect of changes in an
accounting rule that has forced banks to take billions of
dollars in writedowns, sent U.S. shares higher on Tuesday.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he
supported the mark-to-market accounting goal of making
financial balance sheets as transparent as possible but
thought there was room for improvement. Barney Frank,
who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Financial
Services Committee, predicted changes to mark-to-market
given Bernanke's comments and said he hoped the uptick
rule would soon be reinstated by the Securities and
Exchange Commission. The rule, which bans short trades
unless the last movement in the stock price was upwards,
was repealed by the SEC in 2007 because it found that
changes in trading strategies made it ineffective.