Supposedly these moves are made to instill confidence. The only confidence that matters in any market is that the market is FREE and FAIR.
The only confidence that I have is that IDIOT politicians and IDIOT bureaucrats will TINKER with the market.
If you cannot short 799 stocks, the price of the those stocks do reflect NOT a free market.
Basically, those stocks become government protected private entities, which means they use gubmint accounting standards which means no accounting standards and therefore no accountability as well.
Short term fixes are what makes junkies, junkies.
The only long term fix for a junkie is NO short term fixes.
Washington be the dealer, Wall Street be the junkie.