Jim Chanos CNBC Interview on Stock Shorts

Jim Chanos on his Tech Shorts, Nat Gas, China [VIDEO]

keep the leases. and often in the sale, the seller keeps that liability. and i think that’s a thing a lot of people have missed in chesapeake and some of the others. anybody having negative cash flow at $4-plus for mcf is going to be very, very problematic. i mean, look, part of what you do is consider yourself a financial detective, as well, right? that’s what short sellers sort of how they make their names at times. you look for issues that arise on boards, and other things that go on that certain stocks could be — have — could have been within question. right? i mean — well, there’s a lot of asymmetries said in the past about the short side. and one of the reasons, actually, i wanted to come on the show and talk to you about this, a lot of misconceptions out there about the short side, bull markets. and by the way, short sellers, it’s a bipolar world if you’re on my side of the street. you’re either dr. evil or you’re the village he had idiot. never middle ground. bringing down western civilization or a simple target at the carnival show to be plunked into the water. so i think that — i think the reality might be somewhere in between. but one of the real asymmetries, there is an important market function that short sellers sometimes provide, and that isn’t ferreting out fraud and corporate governance and wrongdoing. i often said if bernie madoff would have been a public company, the shorts would have been on to him a long time ago. and i believe that. and that is a function short selling does provide for the marketplace because they are incentivized to look for companies that are playing games. look, we’re going to talk much more about that after the