John B. Marek

At lunchtime the other day, I went through the drive-through line at McDonald’s, pulled up to the speaker, placed my order, and paused a beat waiting for the inevitable follow-up question:  “Would you like to short-sell that?”  “No. I just … wait … what?  “Would you like to short-sell your number 2? You borrow a Big Mac, fries, and Coke from us today in the hope that the price goes down, then you can buy them from another store at the lower price and give them back to us tomorrow, pocketing the difference.” “Yeah, I know what short selling is; I just wasn’t aware that the Golden Arches was involved.”  While that may sound far-fetched, is it really? A year ago, my decade-old SUV gave up the ghost, and I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to get to replace her. I located precisely the vehicle I wanted – a used midsize truck – at a nearby dealership, took a test drive, and was prepared to write them a check for the purchase price. They literally would not take my money. Over the next