I'm placing this blog post squarely at the feet of George Soros. The first reason I'm doing that is because I can. The second reason I'm doing it is because Mr. Soros will never read it. The third reason is because I have the ability to understand insurance actuary tables and I can read the writing on the wall.

Is anyone out there willing to take a guess at exactly why George Soros, Progressive Insurance (NYSE: PGR), and most of the rest of the auto insurance industry is so highly motivated to promote the green movement? Do you think it's because they want more trees available for the little birdies to sing in? Is it because someone said we're running a couple quarts low on oil? Could it be that they fear "green house gases" will soon choke us all? Nope, it's about none of those things. It all comes down to percentages, money, and control.

The investment world is abuzz regarding the thoughtless verbal spillage of Stop Trading!, Jim Cramer. First, I'd like to make one major change in my stance on the man. It is without extraneous humility that I submit I can call him Jim now and I'll no longer be constrained to calling him Mr. Cramer. He has taken a lower position in my catalog of respected individuals. I'm not any better than I ever was. But Jim just got worse than he's ever been.

It's not that I find his market manipulations especially unpalatable, those things are done every day. It's called journalism and if creating a reaction wasn't the basis for what we do, then why do it? However, if in fact Jim deliberately scuttled his own true opinions on a stock or fund in lieu of presenting convoluted information as the means to attaining a goal, then his words of guidance mean nothing to us. His recommendations would be nothing more useful than the obtrusively grating sounds of finger nails on a chalk board.

I'm not qualified to say if Jim's value manipulations for his own gain were wrong but if he shared his dubious intent with others prior to warping the record, then he most certainly has affronted the law. Already, Jim's entourage is suggesting that Jim should offer his services and insight to regulators to help curb the problem. Yeah, and murderers should help design safer guns.

The tongue is like a consuming fire which, when left uncontrolled, shall leave massive destruction in its wake. See what a large fire such a small spark has made. Jim's days as a guidepost to the time-constrained investor have just been greatly reduced. Watch for his ratings to plummet. In the light of his lack of ability to keep his market dealings straightforward and subject to the same forces as the rest of us, I will make my strongest investment suggestion of the week:

Short Jim Cramer now!

An excellent article appeared in Red Herring written by Alexandra Berzon. In her article, Alexandra describes a recent, albeit small, misstep by Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) whereby it began placing Google-leaning content tips at the head of search results. An outcry arose and our friends at Google quickly disengaged the "service."

This situation brings two things to the forefront of my thinking. First, why can't eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) react in similar timely fashion to its membership outcries when it receives them? Secondly, what does Google's attempt here signal in the realm of content manipulation? Setting aside the eBay angle and the business aspects of Google's decisions, let's quickly address the impending danger of content manipulation.