An EC way to kill two birds

The European Commission may be about to kill two very big birds with one stone. The ‘stone' it is casting from Brussels is the snappily named Regulation on Short Selling and Certain Aspects of Credit Default Swaps.

It is under discussion and could be tweaked around the edges, but the bulk of it looks like it will take effect. In short, it is a set of rules that seeks to regulate and monitor short selling in the EU more tightly, including by forcing managers to disclose sizeable short positions. The first ‘bird’ this targets is short sellers. Hedge funds claim the proposals will make some of their strategies unworkable, others will need re-engineering, and shorting is not the bogeyman some suggest. But hedge funds already ‘have form’, say many Continental power brokers and citizens. Leaders in p...