Someone is Trying To Tell Us Something.

Are you listening to the multitude of transmissions? The very high number of earthquakes and related activity in recent months, among other earthly events, says something is afoot. The volcanic ash spewing from Iceland has serious implications, and none of them are good, especially if the noxious and hot plumes of volcanic ash continue for any length of time. Imagine the depressing effect on business activity. I, for one, am supposed to be traveling to the UK on Tuesday, which now looks decidedly iffy. Word has it that already more flights have been grounded than on that infinitely more storied day of massive ash dispersion, 9/11.

One wonders what, if any, the effects may be on the jet stream, weather patterns, and, shudder, crops. How about a little global cooling, scarecrow! We know from our chaos theory studies what can happen when one lone butterfly flaps its wings. Well, there are many butterflies flapping of late, and one would do well to hope that they cancel each other's ever widening ripple effects out.

In the meantime, the SEC, in a civil case, has charged vampire squid extraordinaire, Goldman Sachs, with fraud. On one level, I make very little of this indictment as it is a civil charge not a criminal one. The idea that this capo da capo tutti of corrupt financial firms could not be charged criminally is, well, criminal. It also seems reasonably obvious that this move by the SEC is being timed by The Obama Administration to nudge recalcitrant Republicans into supporting the Democratic party's very tepid financial reform now before Congress. However, despite this bit of Kabuki theatrics, the execrable powers that be may be, despite their best efforts, unwittingly giving an opening to real change.

That, of course, remains to be seen, but in the meantime, the idea behind my own bit of wishful thinking is that, however mild this charge of wrongdoing is likely to be in its full, practical, effect, it has the potential to be, at least symbolically, important. The cat, as it were, is now out of the bag. The powers that be are almost certainly engaged in concocting yet more sham justice, but, in so doing, they have, in essence, admitted that which they have heretofore assiduously avoided admitting, namely that the system is rotten. Think Catholic Church. Great debacles start slowly. For now we can only hope, pray, and, of course, blog.

P.S.

The bearish reaction in the share market today gives the lie to the idea that the state of the stock market is healthy. After all, if just the merest hint that disinfectant is about to be applied to this festering casino can cause a few percentage points to get instantly shaved, what would happen if they changed the accounting rules so they reflected reality and not a sick fantasy? And why is this important?

Beyond the implications of a compromised capital market, the waves of selling that immediately manifested when the news broke that the SEC was charging Goldman Sachs with fraud demonstrated, like nothing else can, just how bogus our economic recovery is, based, as it is, in large part, on the share market moving ever higher. The stock market, for those who don't know, is TPTB's marquee performer in their high production values feature length propaganda film entitled, "Economic Recovery's Here"