If the SEC brings back the uptick rule...

...to restrict short-selling it won't have any impact at all on the stock market. The whole exercise is a complete waste of everyone's time. Never mind the difficulty of implementing this in a world of stocks that trade in decimals, it's like relaxing the mark-to-market rule--it won't change the value of a company's stock. Equities are ultimately driven by the fundamentals. If the short-sellers are right, they will be rewarded; if not, they will be punished. If a stock like Lehman is worth nothing then the market will take it there with or without short-sellers. (Turns out that Dick Fuld and his cast of CFOs were lying and David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital was telling the truth.) And if a company like Google is healthy no amount of short-selling will change that reality. The only consequence of reinstating the uptick rule might be to reduce liquidity, which is not a good thing. If nothing else, the debate is a poor use of our precious time, like holding hearings before Congress about steroid use in baseball.