Don't you watch MTV or HBO? Americans are gangstah, yo... Sort of kidding sort of not.
One theory on the subject of shorting is that shorting can actually bring our market to a grinding hault by market realization of zero value stock certificates. If you did the same thing to the US currency and everyone knew that all we had was a bunch of counterfeit bills in circulation... Where is the value of the currency? There wouldn't be any.
The SEC is taking gradual steps towards reducing shorts... One apparent thing that only started last month is the publication of shorts on the OTC site: