Initially, it described collective investment vehicles, often organised as private partnerships, that specialised in combining two investment techniques, short sales (borrowing a security and selling it in the hope of being able to repurchase it more cheaply before repaying the lender) and leverage (buying securities with borrowed money) in a way that reduced risk.

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Looking at the number of borrowed securities over the past year, we can see a distinct difference between implied shorting activity on US corporate bonds, Treasuries and US equities.

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Tens of millions of dollars had been borrowed against the securities on margin.

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In magnifying its bets with large dollops of borrowed money and peddling subprime securities, Goldman played a part in bringing America to the brink of financial catastrophe.

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Germany also rattled the markets and its partners by introducing a unilateral ten-month ban on naked short-selling (when securities are sold that are not owned or borrowed, which is the practice in conventional short-selling).

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Instead of holding pledged stock in trust accounts for its customers, says the complaint, Credit Bancorp put the shares in cash or margin accounts, sold or borrowed against the stock and kept the proceeds, sometimes buying more securities with the money.

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Though regulators say naked short-selling (in which shares are sold short without being properly borrowed) isn't a pervasive problem, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sees it as enough of a risk that it is seeking to close certain loopholes that makes it easier to pull off a naked short trade.

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As I understand it, our national public debt was borrowed, in US dollars, from India and China in the sale of Treasury securities purchased with the US dollars that came from the sales of consumer goods in trade imbalance that has lasted for better than a decade.

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