I don't oppress people, I just reinvest my dividends

this illustration looks kind of Thomas Nast-y to me, but from whence the original issued I am unsure. I got it from univie.ac.at

1. from Editor and Publisher:"Reports: Plame Was Monitoring Iran Nukes When Outed"

and, from my email:

2. Frank Barnako's internet newsletter:

Microsoft gunning for Google

There are 5,000 stories about Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Google Inc. (GOOG), but apparently not one Web site or newsletter that sees an opportunity here to alert investors on how to make money in this fight to the death.

Imagine the acquisitions to be made, heads to be hunted, lawsuits to be filed and patents to be infringed!

3. and, from my Motley Fool e-mail:

"How America's Wealthiest Families Accidentally Got Rich"

that's the title of their latest message, offered without any apparent irony, in an attempt to sell another newsletter. They cite two past high performers, PepsiCo[1] and Phillip Morris. And some more verbiage:

"Put simply, no other financial services company in the world is nearly so well positioned. Just watch as this world-class operation skims the cream right off the top of this country's customer pool.

Meanwhile, an incredibly robust distribution network will allow it to run roughshod over the U.S. market... cherry-picking the most profitable accounts in the nation. And it's you, the shareholders, who will reap the benefits..."

"When India and Asia take over the world... will you profit?

Well, you'll have a much better chance of doing so if you own a piece of this South Korean steel manufacturer..."

You would get a letter grade off for your melodramatically lurid tone if you made this up as an assignment in a creative writing class. My sarcastic title aside, I often find myself wanting to discuss the question of moral agency vis-a-vis living in an industrialized society, because I do see it as a particularly thorny one. I started to discuss this topic last fall(here and here) but stopped myself, only partly because of a lack of time.