Good post monkey. A lot of people here have 6 figures or more of ECU shares and who knows what other jrs.
I know that a lot of mutual funds avoid penny stocks for just that reason. It is in their operating rules to place a floor under the price of any stock that they can purchase. There are a few dedicated exceptions.
I get the impression (unsubstantiated by any proof) that a lot of the trading that is harmful to ECU is corporations that are trading their own funds. It is these large funds that prey on the penny stocks specifically because it is easy to use a little capital and manipulate the stocks into large gains. Shorting or pump and dump, they don't care. They just want the $s and to hell with the likes of fundamental stock investors.
It will stay that way until we get the criminals out of political office and bureaucracies.