When Rowan Williams and John Sentamu took up their crosiers against short-sellers, they chose strange company: Ken Lay, the disgraced chief executive of Enron, Dennis Kozlowski, the jailed boss of Tyco (who took out full-page ads against short-sellers, before his company sank under the burden of accounting fraud) and the former prime minister of Malaysia Dr Mahathir Mohamad are probably the most renowned critics of short-sellers. In recent weeks they have been joined by assorted Labour frontbenchers, including Yvette Cooper and Hazel Blears.
They are a motley crew. The common thread, linking business executives and politicians, is blame shifting — or to use a more biblical term, ‘scapegoating’.
The best short-sellers, on the other hand — the likes of Jim Chanos of Kynikos, or David Einhorn — see themselves as defenders of truth, lone rangers who take on the might of corporations such as Enron, Tyco, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Lehman Brothers and shine a light on flawed business strategies and bad practice.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in