I'm not mad at these hedge funds. I think shorting, and any other trade aimed at predicting the future price of a stock in the short term is a form of gambling (not unlike poker). I've never been into calls and puts for that reason. But hey, if you were in the casino when a hot-shot card shark walked in and put up enough chips for almost unlimited risk to himself and potential windfall winnings on the opposite side, other players will want to be dealt in to play against him. If the big boys have the right to use our stock exchange as a casino, well so do the average people. What was what was so maddening about 2008, common people didn't have enough money to buy into a hedge funds that bought credit default swaps, they were excluded from the process. (Just not excluded from the risk, IE bailout of banks) That was something only they were able to benefit from. I think a major remedy to wealth inequality is more everyday people being engaged in making investments.
