Nothing against shorting in principle, the OP and me were just referring to being able to "sell" more shares of a company than there are in existence...
How is that perverted? Shorting a stock is fundamentally no different than other types of debt.
Imagine an economy of 3 people, A, B and C.
A has $5.
B borrows $5 from A.
C borrows $5 from B.
A borrows $5 form C.
The economy started with $5 and $0 debt, the economy ends with $5 and $15 debt. Despite the fact that the society's total debt is now 300% the size of its economy, it is no different than how it started. Debt isn't inherently bad. Debt is a tool that allows us to collaborate.
That can only happen with naked shorting, which is (illegal and) not implied by >100% short interest.
Some of the short sales refer to the same shares; say there's one share in the company and it's (borrowed and) sold short thrice. The company's one share has been sold three times, but there haven't been sales of more shares than there are in the company - the three (short) sellers need to get that (same) one share back to close their position in sequence.
That’s not mysterious or suspicious at all, it’s just a consequence of being able to lend something fungible. Very similar to how bank lending affects the supply of money.
Imagine an economy of 3 people, A, B and C.
A has $5.
B borrows $5 from A.
C borrows $5 from B.
A borrows $5 form C.
The economy started with $5 and $0 debt, the economy ends with $5 and $15 debt. Despite the fact that the society's total debt is now 300% the size of its economy, it is no different than how it started. Debt isn't inherently bad. Debt is a tool that allows us to collaborate.