shorts make the world a better place.
someone has to keep the pollyannas in check.
if internet stocks hadn't artificially restricted their float, and if knowledgeable insiders hadn't been forced to wait through lockout periods before selling, the mania wouldn't have gotten so out of hand in the first place. things would have been more orderly on the way up and the way down.
but because the street mollycoddled the optimists, the monkeys took over the zoo. and as a result, you have guys like that poor barbershop sap who thought he would retire a millionaire but now has to cut hair for another ten or twenty years.