No, that’s not the name of a surf band. I’ve received lots of email from people who are ticked off about Chris Cox and the removal of the uptick rule. So let’s review: Chris Cox was hammered recently by Michael Lewis of Bloomberg. Why? Apparently he was too hard on short sellers such as David Einhorn. Now folks are complaining that he removed the uptick rule and thus didn’t do enough to reign in short sellers. So which is it? The focus on what Cox did or did not do about short sellers is largely beside the point in the present crisis.
It is important to keep our eyes on the right targets these days. As Arnold Kling points out in an important post, it looks as if our government is about to buy a lot of very bad mortgage securities and precisely how this is done, if it is done, will be very important. As such it’s a good thing a guy like Cox will serve as a counterweight to Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Henry Paulson.