Now it’s the turn of film producer Joel Silver to sue Goldman Sachs….leading to headlines that are probably not in the best of taste, if irresistible to logophiles.

Aside: I may be wrong but this looks like a deal that was contingent on finding financing for it, so I don’t know how good a legal case it makes. But there you have the problem with scape-goats, even one so worthy of the role as Goldman Sachs. A whole system, a whole economy, cannot be corrupted solely (and wholly) by one outfit, not unless you subscribe to a “devil theory” of history. Continue reading →

Pam Martens at Counterpunch:

“According to Mr. Duffy, there were 1.6 million (yes, million) contracts traded in the E-Mini S&P 500 in the pivotal hour of 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. New York time.  Each E-Mini trades at 50 times the level of the S&P 500 futures price.  At 1100 on the S&P, that would be $55,000 per contract or about $88 billion (yes, billion) in one hour, an astonishing amount. Continue reading →

It’s a strange world when financial writers take to mythology and prophecy….and seem no less credible than anyone else you read in the mainstream media. Thus,  trader Rick Ackerman:

“According to several prophetic sources, seismic activity is building towards an impending planetary event (worldwide) – the shifting of the axis of rotation of the Earth, which some sources indicate is forecast to occur in the 4th quarter of 2012. Continue reading →

Update AM Friday, May 14:

Well, we woke up to gold bouncing over its highs and the market sinking, so we were ready to eat crow.

But now, gold’s retreated a bit and we’re willing to claim the mantle of Nostradamus once more. A see-saw is good for at least that. You get to read every move your way as a vindication of your clairvoyance and every swing the other way as fat fingers, dead cats, or black swans….and once the animal kingdom is exhausted, there’s always the stars we can blame it on….a Uranus or Mars transit somewhere is always good for at least a few technological glitches and nasty accidents.

Update 1:34 PM (Thursday, May 13):

As you can see below, my thinking on this is rather contrary to the mainstream. I freely admit my opinion is biased. I want gold prices to go lower so I can buy at a better price.

But as I watched the market today, I do see some slight signs of confirmation of the contrarian position. Both stocks and gold/silver are flat but the dollar is up. What does that mean? If gold is looking ahead to massive inflation, why would it not be up even more today? Instead it’s flat. Maybe it will fall later, just as it did after the fall of Lehman (although it took a month to do it then). In any case, today, it’s retreated just a bit, along with stocks. Continue reading →

Update (June 2): At the request of Michael Roberts, I have updated the excerpt from his excellent site, with the latest version deleting the previous version from this blog.

Original Post

Michael Roberts, Senior Investigator of Rexxfield.com writes about more dark behavior from Google that belies it’s claim to “do no evil.” Google, in case you don’t know it, is a highly political search engine, ranked at the bottom of privacy lists by surveillance experts, and known to be amenable to government influence in China and the US.

I’ve often noticed that the articles and sites that pop up on a yahoo, altavista, or bing search have much in common. But none of them is similar to what I get from a Google search. That suggests that Google is using algorithms that are quite different, and possibly quite opposed, to the normal SEO criteria – well-written, credible, or well-sourced material. Continue reading →

I’m traveling again, so this blog has been taking a back seat for a week or so, which is a shame, because I have a bunch of articles that are crying to be finished.

Anyway, I first thought I’d just post pieces without commenting, but looking for what I think are blogworthy tidbits of information is as time-consuming as writing an original comment or post myself, so for now, I’ll just sign off for a  couple of weeks to take care of things.

I’ll be on Chris Cook’s U Victoria show on May 8 May 10

‘ll post the details later tonight.

There will be a day-long libertarian seminar in Vancouver, BC, Canada, this coming Saturday, May 8, 2010, entitled “Featured Capitalism and Morality.” speakers include Larry Reed, President of FEE, Walter Block of Loyola University and the Mises Institute, Paul Geddes of Columbia College, Vancouver, Jayant Bhandari conference convenor and financial analyst, and Tunya Audain, libertarian educational expert. For further information, go here.

From Global Research.com

“Arms Manufacturer and Nuclear Rivalry in India

Since the end of the Cold War there has been a drive to push out Russian arms manufacturers out of the Indian market by Anglo-American, Franco-German, and Israeli military contractors. France and Israel have also been traditionally the second and third largest weapon sources for India after Russia. Russian manufacturers have been competing fiercely against military manufactures based in France, Germany, Israel, Britain, and the U.S. to remain as New Delhi’s top arms suppliers. Continue reading →