KIND WORDS: I see that there's a flattering appraisal of Wall Street Versus America in the New York Post today. I know this is shameless self-promotion, but I'm copying it in full below:

"A new book by ace investigative reporter Gary Weiss, a longtime BusinessWeek staffer, is guaranteed to be a front-runner for most controversial business book of 2006, according to The Post's Roddy Boyd. The book, "Wall Street Versus America," won't hit the stands until early April, but his arguments — gleaned from two decades worth of reporting on Wall Street — are sure to provoke outrage in many sectors.

"The most provocative argument in Weiss' book is that naked shorting — or short-selling a company's stock without being able to borrow it first, per long standing rules — is not only a good idea, but a necessary one.

"Weiss argues that the indifference of regulators toward small-cap stocks has promoted a lawless Wild West dominated by stock promoters and sleazy underwriters. The only remedy against such "bacteria" is to short these stocks mercilessly.

"This is guaranteed to send Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne and the other disciples of his "stop naked short-selling crusade" — Weiss dismisses the lot of them as the "Baloney Brigade" — into further spasms.

"The book is witty, readable and hunts big prey: Weiss spends a chapter filleting Bear Stearns for its sins in some preposterous municipal securities transactions. His eyeglass spares no one, and financial reporters come in for special mention for their sins of omission, as they focus on the machinations in the Morgan Stanley executive suite while ordinary investors are robbed blind by scams that continue to this day."