a little -- you know, you can get a little dicey. >> i ask this because our guest host today is bill ackmanwe've been talking about some of the services short sellers can provide. they were the first to point out enron. bill's here with a book about what happened with mbia. i guess my question is, do short sellers sometimes provide a service in the market? >> i think it would be hard to say that if you looked back through the recent financial history of the last 20 years that there was never a moment that the short sellers did provide information. i think they have provided information, as i say, to me blanket bans on all short selling seem like a bit of an overreaction, but as i say, that may be one of the loudest components today, but when i look at this case, i think the most central features are those about the conflicts of interest. as i said the other day, i don't think that the ceo or anybody else is going to win any popularity contests when ordinary americans' houses are falling through the floor, people getting foreclosed everywhere and then reading about the profits somebody's mak