Selling yourself short.(ECONOMIC OBSERVER)(short selling of stocks)

IN REACTION to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, governments around the world moved to ban the short selling of financial industry stocks. Short selling is a strategy employed by investors who believe a stock or other financial instrument will soon fall in price. Politicians and regulators feared that short sellers would drive down the stock price of financial firms, worsening their already weak condition. However, short sellers and other market participants were expressing their judgment regarding the health of these companies--a judgment that governments wished to suppress. Rather than listening to what the markets were saying, governments tried, ultimately without success, to present an alternate reality.

So, what is it, exactly, to short a stock? To answer this, let us first consider its opposite, taking a "long" position. Let us say stock in Apple Inc. is Wading for about $250 a share on the New York Stock Exchange. If my bank is …