I find this very puzzling:

Erroneous trades sent to the Nasdaq Stock Market by another exchange caused Google’s share price to gyrate wildly Tuesday afternoon, soaring as high as $485.13 and falling as low as $25.80.

The Nasdaq issued a statement Tuesday afternoon saying that all trades in Google’s shares made at or above $425.29 and at or below $400.52 between 3:57 and 4:02 p.m. would be canceled. The statement said Google’s official closing price would be adjusted to $400.52, an increase of 5 percent over the previous day.

Sounds a little like a deus ex machina to me. What if Nasdaq is artificially fixing a *real* stock fluctuation simply to stabilize the economy? I mean, if Google’s stock suddenly dropped to $25.80 for real and stayed there, the cascading effects would be simply catastrophic, wouldn’t it?

It would basically mean the end of the internet as we know it, from where I’m sitting.

{See also: my quote from yesterday, “I’m not feeling very trusting - with the way the economy is going - that this whole ‘free internet money’ thing will last indefinitely…”}

In other news, the latest cover story for the bizarre street gang murder of an executive head of one Britain’s largest banks is that he died defending a homeless man. Whether this is just news media melodrama to deter people from what actually happened (it sounds like an assassination) or its just poetic irony - well, the thing is, it doesn’t matter. Woody Guthrie said it best anyway…

My name is Tom Cranker and I’m a jolly banker,
I’m a Jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I safeguard the farmers and widows and orphans,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

When the landlords abuse you, or sadly misuse you,
I’m a jolly banker, Jolly banker am I.
I’ll send down the police chief to keep you from mischief,
Singin’ I’m jolly banker, jolly banker am I.