I see the same ridiculous justifications all the time for short selling- "provides liquidity"- maybe we should just print up a huge number of counterfeit stock coupons- that would provide "liquidity" too- shorting just artificially makes more shares available than there really are, which inevitably drives down the price- that is not "price discovery". Shorting is no different than the treasury printing up trillions of dollars to increase "liquidity"- the end result is each dollar is worth less. Well, I don't want someone borrowing my shares without my permission so he can make them worth less. And if you're like many of the gold bugs, you probably raise holy hell about CBs "leasing out" gold so it can be sold to suppress prices. Think about it- no different from shorting.