Originally posted on 3/4/2009 by Mark Mitchell

Speaking at a panel discussion in Australia this week, Zarinah Anwar, the chairman of the Malaysian Securities Commission, said that Asian emerging markets had learned an important lesson.

Following the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s, regulators in the region allowed short selling, but strictly enforced an uptick rule and a ban on naked short selling. As a result, Anwar said, Asian markets were better able to withstand this year’s market turmoil.

Anwar also spoke at length about “regulatory capture,” noting that in some countries government bodies were subject to influence from those whom they were supposed to be regulating.

Probably, she was thinking of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, and it’s failure to stop the naked short selling that helped topple the American financial system.

How strange that everyone in the developing world seems to understand this issue, and the American media still does not have a clue.

What the Rest of the World Says About Naked Short Selling