You Play You Pay

Now, this might be old news but I've been very lapse on the weblog front of late and the issue still hasn't been resolved yet so I would consider it to still be current or at least raisin.
At first glance this story appears to be one of the little guys standing up to evil big business - albeit a scruffy, dot com millionaire little guy - but even a cursory look over the reporting reveals a very different story. The 27 year old Nicholas Bolton saw a bargain - undervalued shares going very cheaply, he had the available cash to buy up a huge chunk of them so he did. Upon the realisation that he was obliged to pay millions he tried to dissolve the company and therefore the project that the company was built around. What did he think he would do with all of these shares? Sell them when they appreciated a couple of cents, netting a fortune for himself all for being lucky enough to have the available cash to play the market. He tried to make a quick buck in a game where he didn't fully understand the rules and now that he's losing he doesn't want to play anymore and is willing to railroad a massive infrastructure project that would have great benefits for a lot of other people - the least of which are the construction workers who would get employment building it which is a good thing in this economic climate. I'm not a big fan of roads but I use them and recognise their necessity. I don't know how this thing is going to play out - much of this economic crisis is due to people playing the trading game with no regard to the consequences of what happens when capital is sloshed around like water in a bathtub - when you play and f**k up you should have to pay.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25070213-30538,00.html
http://business.smh.com.au/business/danger-money-turning-a-tollway-into-a-train-wreck-20090402-9l3r.html