Archive - Feb 20, 2011

Would it have mattered if at the beginning of the crisis in Egypt that information on his wealth outside the country were accurately reported? Maybe. I think so.

Stocks ended higher for the third consecutive week as protests throughout the Middle East continue to spread like misinformation during a political campaign or

Will the bond market kill the party in stocks? It's not that simple...

What could possibly be the most important unreported news from the weekend comes out of China, where quietly Internet postings have circulated, calling for disgruntled Chinese to gather on Sunday in public places in 13 major cities to mark the "Jasmine Revolution" spreading through the Middle East. The postings, many of which appeared to have originated on overseas
websites run by exiled Chinese political activists, called for protests
in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and 10 other major Chinese cities. And while there has been some speculation this latest "social network" protest is nothing more than performance art, the Chinese authorities sure are taking it seriously: "The calls have apparently led the Chinese government to censor
postings containing the word "jasmine" in an attempt to quell any
potential unrest. "We welcome... laid off workers and victims of
forced evictions to participate in demonstrations, shout slogans and
seek freedom, democracy and political reform to end 'one party rule',"
one posting said." Just like surging prices (which however are either forcefully adjusted to not be reflected or eliminated entirely from the data stream) caused virtually all prior Chinese social revolts, will they succeed again? And more improtantly, will China demonstrate to the US that the only way to prevent a 'twitter revolution' is to wrest control of the internet entirely? If so, how many days before Big Brother is actively scouring through every single 100Base TX for daily keywords of choice with HBGary patiently waiting in the corridors to unleash a destructive DDOS at a moment's notice?