[calyth2018]

Ok, that's fair.

My point being that it's the wrong takeaway to get mad at shorts for calling something bullshit and getting reward for it, and it sound rather irrational to me.

The dog / cat shit pile was junk mortgage bundled into a CDO and getting a AAA rating, in which pension funds buys it thinking it's safe. In the absence of the shorts, those mortgage would have gone into default, the CDOs would have become worthless, or downgraded, forcing pension funds to sell.

It's still the people holding the bag. The shorts weren't the ones initiating the bad behaviour, they made money on someone else's bad behaviour.

And of course, the government bailed the FIs out just the same.