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Comment by jamiethompson | Hacker News Reader

The same BlackRock that's just made a killing short selling shares in the failed UK public sector contractor Carillion?

Maybe the UK govt would have done well to look at Blackrock's bet against Carillion and ask them what they saw that they didn't.

What is unethical about short selling?

There is a suggestion that HSBC and others may have been working with inside knowledge. Blackrock also hired the outgoing chancellor of the UK George Osborne who was responsible for awarding vast numbers of contract to Carillion.

I read an article in FT this morning about how the Carillion problems were hinted in annual reports going back to 2011 (and also how shorting them was popular throughout 2016 and 2017). Hindsight is 20/20, but there's a real chance that Blackrock are just pretty good at what they do.

Employing George Osborne for squillions straight from government is definitely unethical. How can he act in the best interest of the country when there is a colossal personal incentive to keep BlackRock et al on side during his tenure?

> What is unethical about short selling?

Short-sold stocks are 'borrowed' from an investor who has less market information than the trader.

The trader deliberately hides that information so as to leave the owner holding the bag when the price drops, whilst pocketing the difference as profit.

Doesn't seem ethical to me. Legal, yes.

Well, consider TSLA, one of the most shorted stocks of last years. I don't think that Tesla short-sellers are deliberately hiding some information from investors. Jim Chanos, the most famous TSLA seller, is very open why, in his opinion, true tesla price is zero [0] and definitely not hiding anything. Some even argue that Jim is too vocal.

[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/14/jim-chanos-we-think-tesla-is...

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