not everyone is bleeding tho, newscaper –shorts have been making out like –well, bandits, hammering down company after company, with no problems from no steenkin uptick rule (or in the naked case, no need to even to even borrow the stock they’re selling –some companies under attack found up to 130% of their float somewhow ‘existed’), for nearly two years now since the front elements of the bubble began popping. Famoius shorts like Soros, a heavy Lehman Bros investor, could happily lose every dime in Lehman while driving Lehman auction-rate securities funds to blow and blow til the bubble popped, then to quickly hop to the short side and make it all back times whatever, by shorting the damage wrought, by shorting ‘bear raid’ style any chosen company (replete with a rumor mill going full blast) down down down, ’til ordinary players had to begin to see the bear raids as a new ‘fundamental’ –causing these ordinary players to bail, thus driving short profits even higher, thus causing drops in volumes that let formerly dampened activities begin running volatility wild, which then chases more longs away and to this day furthers the dismal tide in ever fresher vicious cycles.

And that, as your aunt says, is the story, writ small in a local bank boardroom, writ large across global equity markets suddenly smaller by half and feeling suspended over a void.

Just remember, not all that disappeared dough disappeared –a lot of it is in brimful short accounts. Oh is there ever a book to be written –with a big chapter on the recent election.

Now the guy who kicked CRA into high gear back in 1995, well his wife is gonna be our new Secretary of State.