These days, we're mostly afraid to open up the newspaper, because it just keeps getting freakier and freakier. In the latest monster-mash mash-up, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson [ex-Goldman] and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher ["I'm-the-decider"] Cox, decided to impose a 30-day curb on the short selling of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman, Goldman, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. But considering how hard it is to keep a good short-seller down, will that plan really work?

Somewhere, David Trone must be cheering.

Monday, the Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Walker analyst proposed in a research report and argued right here in Deal Journal that there should be a ban on short-selling shares of brokerage firms. Tuesday Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox took radical steps very close to that: they created an emergency order limiting short-selling in shares of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. Our MarketBeat chieftain, David Gaffen, described the move as "Operation Stocks Go Up Always."

Here's how the new rules, which are in effect for 30 days, compare to the old ones, according to our colleague Kara Scannell: "Under current rules, a short-seller must locate shares to borrow, which are later replaced with stock bought at a lower price. Some market watchers have been concerned that traders were borrowing the same shares from the same lender over and over, and driving down stock prices….Under the emergency order, traders will be required to borrow the stock and the lender would then take it out of the market and not allow other traders to use it to satisfy requirements that they've located stock."

It's a start, no question. But trying to actually stop short-selling is like playing whack-a-mole. You just can't keep a short-seller down.

For one thing, take the example of Bill Ackman. The Pershing Square founder yesterday announced that he was going short on shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and also unveiled a brief plan for salvaging the two GSEs. This morning, the SEC essentially blocked Ackman’s move, but who doubts he will find a way?

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