"A Very Strong Political Message"

I don't think that's really the point, but...

European lawmakers called for restrictions on traders’ use of credit default swaps to profit from defaults on sovereign debt they don’t own.

The European Union Parliament also voted in Strasbourg, France, in favor of a ban on short selling of government bonds in the EU unless traders have at least “located and reserved” in advance the securities they intend to sell.

“Today we are sending a very strong political message,” Pascal Canfin, a French lawmaker who is responsible for securing the adoption of the measures by the Parliament, said after the vote. Negotiations on the measures with governments in the 27- nation region will continue next week, he said.

4 years later and the banksters are still blowing up the world.