Get Shorty 3

Irony amuses me. Maybe not as much as tannic satire, or creatively-apt word-smithing, but as a close of cousin of hypocrisy, it stands apart from mere smile-inducing happenstance or serendipity. Most of my efforts are admittedly sophmoric and rather feeble. And even if they weren't wooden imitations, they certainly couldn't compare to the surreality of people's own flaws and foibles.

For example, Rand and Hayek were, unbeknownst to most of their disciples, rather contented beneficiaries of Medicare. Or that the wholesome-imaged founder/CEO of Wholefoods, John Mackey was caught with his trousers around his ankles, perennially-posting potshots against competitor Wild Oats under a pseudonym on Yahoo! message boards. Or how, according to former IMF Economist Per Kurowski, the very Basel II risk-weightings meant to limit the risk of banks actually turbocharged the feedback loop encouraging banks to gorge themselves on now-risky Euro-Area sovereign debt. Or that Daily Mail journalists were phone-hacked by their fleet-street rivals at Murdoch's NOTW. All amusing in their way.

But what separates the merely humorous from the absolutely riotous is when irony glaringly overlaps with hypocrisy (as highlighted by The StreetWise Professor who knows more than a thing or two about market manipulation).  Such was the case when this lawsuit was filed in December by a West Coast Private Equity Firm alleging conspiracy, fraud and market manipulation by a cabal of larger-than-life characters involving several grifters, felons, a haplesss Forbes blogger, Bulgaria, and centrally and most amusingly ZeroHedge, that popular blog well-known for conjuring and lambasting ummm ... errrr ..... yes, fraud, conspiracy and market manipulation. You couldn't make it up if you'd wanted to. It's a long but illuminating accusatory read, but rewarding for those who persevere. And it serves yet again to highlight the omnipresence of conflicted interests that should cause all readers to carefully consider carefully their sources, and critically examine such sources' underlying motivations.  

The Elmore Leonard version ("Get Shorty III"? or "Getting Shorty Again") loosely-based on the same will no doubt be out soon.