A Point About Short Selling

First of all, a personal disclosure. I short-sold once, in the mid 1980s, and actually scored a small profit on the short. Since I shorted a stock that I had bought and sold previously, I'd rather not name it. I'll confine myself to saying that it was a holding company. I also remember anticipating, back in 1989 in conversation with my father, that Campeau Corp. would implode, which it did.

So, those questions I raised yesterday, with the naming of two books as the source of them, drew on background reads whose points went into an already-primed mind.

A recent "Daily Article" at Mises.org, posted three days ago, has a defense of short sellers, which raises a question with regard to Hollinger International: what was the short interest on it from 1998 to the end of 2003, when Conrad Black was ousted? As author Gary Galles pointed out, short sellers "often uncover what regulators miss, as they did at Worldcom, Enron, Tyco, etc., showing themselves as more effective market policemen."

Where were they when Conrad Black was still with Hollinger Int'l? Is the short-interest pattern similar to the one for "Worldcom, Enron, Tyco, etc."?