gs told to take down gold last week, page-2

You know - I was thinking about that review about those morgan books I wrote the other week... and how I emphasized those elements which diminished the likelihood of morgan ruling the world. I still think is true...

But for some reason - even though I mentioned it - didn't emphasize the fact of known historical co-operation between the government and the banks, and the fact that the bankers generally saw it as their civic and patriotic duty to help the government - particularly because there were instances where they were forced to take bad trades.

JP Morgan no doubt sees their acquisition of Bear Stearns in this way - because I think in the long term in will mean they will take a hit from it, despite the fire sale price. Jamie Dimon often talks about the act as good corporate citizenship.

All this feeds into the likelihood that they would suppress gold if the gov told them too - and they'd do it, because they would think they would be doing their duty.

I mention this because I think this particular point should be put to the front more. Part of the image problem of the conspiracy theorists is that they often paint the motivations of the bankers as evil dudes trying to commit fraud and rule the world. But this is an implausible psychology. That they view themselves as good citizens is much more plausible - and is not only consistent with the conspiratorial view, but makes it more believable... and less conspiratorial sounding - in the sense that 'conspiracy' is taken to connote crazy nut bar paranoid types.