There’s a profile on the Zero Hedge blog ( other bloggers are mentioned) in New York magazine. I’d like to say it’s a nice profile, but the writer commits the typical Mainstream Media error of false equivalence.
Here’s the false equivalence. Zero Hedge played an important role in exposing Goldman Sach’s flash trading scam, so much so that the SEC is considering banning flash trading. Since Zero Hedge says flash trading is bad, the New York magazine writer has to find someone who says flash trading was no big deal. Right, no big deal … that’s why they’re going to BAN it.
“Tyler Durden,” the pseudonymonomous blogger behind Zero Hedge, has his real name exposed and by the end of the article is portrayed as a paranoid nutcase. Maybe he is paranoid, but he’s hardly a nutcase. End result: the mainstream media confirms our fears that it is out to belittle and marginalize any real critics of the status quo.
I recommend you go read Zero Hedge for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Paranoid? Maybe. Over the top? Sometimes. But in this market, if you’re not paranoid, you’re not paying attention.
Zero Hedge is on my blog roll for a reason. New York magazine won’t be making it on my blog roll any time soon.
Here is some other news I’m reading today …
European stocks rise on upbeat IMF report
The IMF reduced its estimate of likely losses from the financial crisis in the three years to 2010 — by $600 billion to $3.4 trillion — as the world economy grows faster than previously expected.
Oil to near $68 despite high inventories
U.S. oil inventories rose last week, the American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday. Crude stocks increased 2.8 million barrels while analysts had expected a jump of 2.1 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
FDIC says bank failures to cost around $100B
Federal regulators expect bank failures to cost the deposit insurance fund about $100 billion in the next four years and the fund to be running at a deficit Wednesday. That is higher than an earlier estimate of $70 billion in failure costs through 2013.
XX Sean’s note – this is a fascinating story on what comes next now that the CFTC is putting its heavy foot down (wrongly, in my opinion) on commodity ETFs. There are ideas from S&P and Platts, and Thompson Reuters and Jeffries & Co. has already launched a revamped version of their famous CRB Index, the In-The-Ground CRB Global Commodity Equity Index (CRBQ: 42.85 -0.43 -0.99%)
Officials: Fed will need to boost rates quickly
“I expect that when it comes time to tighten monetary policy, my colleagues and I will move with an alacrity that, if needed, will be equal in speed and intensity” to when the Fed was slashing rates to battle the recession and the financial crisis, said Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
XX Sean’s note – bonus points for use of the word “alacrity.” Who uses that in ordinary conversation?
Photo of the day (hat-tip The Big Picture Blog)
My caption: “When flatulent Wall Street bulls attack!” Feel free to submit your own.
Be careful out there today.
Related Posts
- The Utter Failure of America’s Mainstream Media (12/24/09)
- Weekend Media Fiesta (05/01/09)
- I’m adding Zero Hedge to my blogroll (07/24/09)
- Charts of the Day — Goldman Sachs and Bank of Montreal (01/27/10)
- Updated Crude Oil Numbers — Big Build! (04/22/09)
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