United Nations Declaration (Articles 1 - 30):

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Incoming UN chief names three women to top posts

Incoming UN chief names three women to top posts
Nigerian Minister of the Environment Amina Mohammed, seen in 2015, will be the UN's number two official (AFP Photo/Mireya ACIERTO)

Sustainable Development
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) -
"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."
"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)


The Declaration of Human Freedom

Archangel Michael (Via Steve Beckow), Feb. 19, 2011

Every being is a divine and eternal soul living in a temporal body. Every being was alive before birth and will live after death.

Every soul enters into physical life for the purpose of experience and education, that it may, in the course of many lifetimes, learn its true identity as a fragment of the Divine.

Life itself is a constant process of spiritual evolution and unfoldment, based on free choice, that continues until such time as we realize our true nature and return to the Divine from which we came.

No soul enters life to serve another, except by choice, but to serve its own purpose and that of the Divine from which it came.

All life is governed by natural and universal laws which precede and outweigh the laws of humanity. These laws, such as the law of karma, the law of attraction, and the law of free will, are decreed by God to order existence and assist each person to achieve life’s purpose.

No government can or should survive that derives its existence from the enforced submission of its people or that denies its people their basic rights and freedoms.

Life is a movement from one existence to another, in varied venues throughout the universe and in other universes and dimensions of existence. We are not alone in the universe but share it with other civilizations, most of them peace-loving, many of whom are more advanced than we are, some of whom can be seen with our eyes and some of whom cannot.

The evidence of our five senses is not the final arbiter of existence. Humans are spiritual as well as physical entities and the spiritual side of life transcends the physical. God is a Spirit and the final touchstone of God’s Truth is not physical but spiritual. The Truth is to be found within.

God is one and, because of this, souls are one. They form a unity. They are meant to live in peace and harmony together in a “common unity” or community. The use of force to settle affairs runs contrary to natural law. Every person should have the right to conduct his or her own affairs without force, as long as his or her choices do not harm another.

No person shall be forced into marriage against his or her will. No woman shall be forced to bear or not bear children, against her will. No person shall be forced to hold or not hold views or worship in a manner contrary to his or her choice. Nothing vital to existence shall be withheld from another if it is within the community’s power to give.

Every person shall retain the ability to think, speak, and act as they choose, as long as they not harm another. Every person has the right to choose, study and practice the education and career of their choice without interference, provided they not harm another.

No one has the right to kill another. No one has the right to steal from another. No one has the right to force himself or herself upon another in any way.

Any government that harms its citizens, deprives them of their property or rights without their consent, or makes offensive war upon its neighbors, no matter how it misrepresents the situation, has lost its legitimacy. No government may govern without the consent of its people. All governments are tasked with seeing to the wellbeing of their citizens. Any government which forces its citizens to see to its own wellbeing without attending to theirs has lost its legitimacy.

Men and women are meant to live fulfilling lives, free of want, wherever they wish and under the conditions they desire, providing their choices do not harm another and are humanly attainable.

Children are meant to live lives under the beneficent protection of all, free of exploitation, with unhindered access to the necessities of life, education, and health care.

All forms of exploitation, oppression, and persecution run counter to universal and natural law. All disagreements are meant to be resolved amicably.

Any human law that runs counter to natural and universal law is invalid and should not survive. The enactment or enforcement of human law that runs counter to natural and universal law brings consequences that cannot be escaped, in this life or another. While one may escape temporal justice, one does not escape divine justice.

All outcomes are to the greater glory of God and to God do we look for the fulfillment of our needs and for love, peace, and wisdom. So let it be. Aum/Amen.


Pope Francis arrives for historic first US visit

Pope Francis arrives for historic first US visit
Pope Francis laughs alongside US President Barack Obama upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, on September 22, 2015, on the start of a 3-day trip to Washington (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)


Today's doodle in the U.S. celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech on its 50th anniversary (28 Aug 2013)

'Love is love': Obama lauds gay marriage activists in hailing 'a victory for America'

'Love is love': Obama lauds gay marriage activists in hailing 'a victory for America'
The White House released this image, of the building colored like the rainbow flag, on Facebook following the supreme court’s ruling. Photograph: Facebook

Same-sex marriage around the world

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

Merkel says Turkey media crackdown 'highly alarming'

Merkel says Turkey media crackdown 'highly alarming'
Reporters Without Borders labels Erdogan as 'enemy of press freedom'

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Friday, April 30, 2010

Pay czar says pay influenced Goldman's bets

Reuters, Steve Eder, NEW YORK, Thu Apr 29, 2010 2:30pm EDT

Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation, Kenneth Feinberg speaks at the 2010 Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit in Washington, April 29, 2010. (Credit: REUTERS/Jason Reed)

(Reuters) - The Obama administration's pay czar said on Thursday that the lure of fat paychecks influenced Goldman Sachs Group Inc's bets against subprime mortgages before the market collapsed during the financial crisis.

Kenneth Feinberg told the Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit in Washington D.C. that Goldman's traders and salespeople had payouts on their minds when they shorted the housing market.

"I'm sure it influenced their actions," Feinberg said. "Human nature tells you that when your salary is going to be somehow related to your overall success in the marketplace, there's an influence there."

He added: "How much of an influence?... That is a question for a psychiatrist, a philosopher, an empiricist."

A Goldman spokesman disputed Feinberg's point, saying: "Our hedge was motivated by responsible risk management, which both regulators and shareholders expect."

Feinberg's tough words come two days after a Senate panel grilled past and present Goldman executives about whether the firm had put its own profits ahead of its clients' interests.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has separately accused Goldman of fraud for failing to tell clients that some debt securities they were buying had input from hedge fund Paulson & Co, which stood to benefit if the securities lost value.

How pay motivated Goldman's maneuvers in the subprime market was a concern of senators during the hearing, which lasted roughly 11 hours.

Feinberg for much of the past year has been studying and ruling on pay at financial firms. He was appointed by President Barack Obama to decide on pay at firms that received the biggest taxpayer bailouts, while also determining whether compensation practices were in the public's interest.

In the case of Goldman, Feinberg said the Wall Street firm engaged in practices that were clearly contrary to the public's interest.

"Was the whole idea engaged in by Goldman against the public interest? I think everybody would say yes," Feinberg said. "Certainly, Congress is suggesting that the answer to that is yes."

Goldman, which repaid its $10 billion bailout, is not in Feinberg's immediate purview but is part of a broader review of pay during the financial crisis at all 419 firms that received taxpayer assistance.

Feinberg said about half of the firms said they had no employees who made more than the reporting threshold of $500,000.

He said he plans to decide in the coming weeks whether to request that some executives give back pay doled out during the financial crisis.

(Reporting by Steve Eder; Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Gerald E. McCormick)

Things changed when Lloyd Blankfein took the 'stage'

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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Europe Watch: Junking Greece May Be Beginning of End for Euro

Jakarta Globe, Mark Gilbert, April 29, 2010

Greece cheated its way into the single-currency club, lied about its deficit for years, and now brings the shame of becoming the first junk-rated member after losing investment-grade status at Standard & Poor’s this week.

Greece’s punishment? A 30 billion euro ($40 billion) handout from its neighbors, with Germany on the hook for almost 8.4 billion euros, followed by France for 6.3 billion euros and 5.5 billion euros from Italy. The rest of the gang are expected to contribute pro rata, based on their capital subscriptions to the European Central Bank.

Portugal, for example, is in line to lend Greece about 774 million euros repayable in 2013 at 5 percent, even though the bond market was charging the Lisbon government more than 5.6 percent for its own three-year money this week. The bailout — misguided, misconceived and muddleheaded — makes less and less sense as the region’s crisis of confidence worsens.

This chapter didn’t feature when the euro script was written more than a decade ago. So it’s time for investors to start thinking about how the movie might end. The common currency may start to unravel in exactly the way its critics over the years predicted, as the folly of binding disparate economies to a single monetary policy without an accompanying fiscal alignment becomes clear.

“Debt restructuring in euro area member states is not an option,” European Union spokesman Amadeu Altafaj said.

Tell that to the bond traders pricing two-year Greek notes at 76 percent of face value, suggesting they are discounting a loss of 24 percent on their investment as the rescue plan fails and the Athens government reneges on its obligations. Or to S&P, which followed this week’s rating cut with a warning that investors may recover as little as 30 percent of their money in the event that Greece can’t meet its payment schedules.

S&P also slapped downgrades on Portugal and Spain, providing further evidence that the sovereign-debt crisis isn’t contained and that investors have every reason to be concerned about contagion.

The problem with the rescue package as currently designed is that it ends a day early and is a euro short. Greece needs more than 30 billion euros from Europe and 15 billion euros from the International Monetary Fund, and it needs more than one year of funding. IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told German lawmakers that Greece may need as much as 120 billion euros.

The best solution would be to let Greece go bust. Extending the rescue net for longer, and throwing even more cash at the country, is almost a guarantee that the bond vigilantes will turn on Portugal, then Spain, and so on. And, now that it’s clear that Greece should never have been allowed through the door in the first place, the bouncers should grab the nation by the scruff of its indebted neck and toss it out.

Politically, the EU seems unwilling to contemplate such an amputation. So the gangrene will spread.

You know what’s coming next. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet will recall his comments this month to the Kellogg School of Management in Illinois, when he said “crisis management requires agility and innovation to meet the idiosyncrasies of a specific crisis.” He’ll twist the rulebook to come up with some way for the central bank to start buying government bonds in the market, capping the yield increases seen this week in an effort to halt the contagion.

And he’ll bring forward planned rule changes on the collateral requirements to ensure that Greek banks can continue to exchange their government debt at the ECB for cash, even though it’s now junk at one rating company, headed for downgrades at the others, and trading well below its face value all along the maturity spectrum.

Twinning the debt crisis engulfing Athens with the largest bankruptcy in US history is increasingly popular. A Google search combining “Greece” and “Lehman” takes about 0.23 seconds to generate 933,000 references.

The analogy, however appealing, is mistaken. The US authorities let Lehman Brothers go bust in the mistaken belief that the finance industry had ample warning to prepare for the consequences of allowing economic Darwinism to finally take its course. The guardians of the euro, by contrast, are reading from an older playbook, the one that suggested it was a good idea to bail out Bear Stearns.

And we know how well that turned out.

Mark Gilbert, author of “Complicit: How Greed and Collusion Made the Credit Crisis Unstoppable,” is a Bloomberg columnist.

Investors across the world look to credit ratings agencies to judge where to place their bets in the market. (CNN)

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Dutch pension fund drops Goldman Sachs

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 27 April 2010 - 11:59am
Following criticism of its handling of pension fund investments, the Dutch Pension Fund for the Transport Sector (PV) is breaking off its business relationship with Goldman Sachs bank.
The US stock exchange watchdog SEC recently accused Goldman Sachs of fraud involving mortgages. A senior banker at the firm, Lloyd Blankfein, is to appear before a US Senate committee on Tuesday. The committee has said it suspects Goldman Sachs of having aggravated the financial crisis by offering risky real estate investment products.
In a press statement, the Dutch fund merely says that Goldman Sachs' performance did not meet expectations. In the interim, Northern Trust has been appointed as fiduciary fund manager.
Pensions in the Netherlands are financed by the returns on huge investment funds. The funds are filled by monthly contributions from employees made during the course of their working lives.


Goldman Sach's head office in New York. (Photo Reuters)
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Monday, April 26, 2010

For nations living the good life, the party's over, IMF says

The Washington Post, by Howard Schneider, Staff Writer, Saturday, April 24, 2010; A01

In the lingo of the International Monetary Fund, the future of the world hinges on "rebalancing and consolidation," antiseptic words that would not seem to raise a fuss.

Who doesn't want more balance in their life?

But the translation is a bit ruder, something on the order of: "Suck it up. The party's over."

To keep the global economy on track, people in the United States and the rest of the developed world need to work longer before retiring, pay higher taxes and expect less from government. And the cheap imports lining the shelves of mega-chains such as Wal-Mart and Target? They need to be more expensive.

That's the practical meaning of a series of policy papers and statements issued in recent days by IMF officials, who have a long history of stabilizing economies and solving global financial problems, as they plot a course to keep the world economy growing and reduce the risk of another "great recession."

That message has been delivered subtly, woven into documents with titles such as "Resolving the Crisis Legacy and Meeting New Challenges to Financial Stability," and justified by concepts such as "raising retirement age in line with life expectancy," as IMF economic counselor Olivier Blanchard put it this week.

But fully deciphered, it means a pretty serious reworking of expectations in the developed world: changes in labor rules, product prices, currency values and even the social contract between governments and an aging citizenry.

"It is not that living standards will lower, but they will not increase as fast as they have been," said Domenico Lombardi, a former IMF executive director. The ideas being discussed by world leaders "are coded words," he said. "They don't like words like 'imposing higher taxes' and 'cutting spending.' "

Rebalancing

The IMF has long had a reputation as a bearer of bad news -- it dispatches well-educated and diplomatically deft teams to tell economically troubled countries how many people they have to fire and which programs they have to cut to get financial assistance. But the IMF now finds itself in the odd position of having that conversation not with a single ailing sovereign but with the developed countries at the core of the world system, including the United States.

Its prescription is centered on two concepts.

"Rebalancing" is an idea that most everyone endorses -- including the technicians at the fund and President Obama and the leaders of the G-20 group of economically powerful nations. In broad strokes, it means curbing what has been a massive transfer of capital from nations that consume more than they produce, such as the United States, to nations that produce more than they consume, such as China.

The imbalance has been key to China's modernization: The country buys U.S. government bonds by the tens of billions to keep the dollar stronger than it would be and to keep its domestic currency -- and its exports -- cheaper. Looked at one way, the flow of U.S. debt to the People's Bank of China has acted like a giant, collective credit card, underwriting consumers across the United States and driving the business models of major retailers such as Wal-Mart.

The message from the IMF is that the card is about maxed out and that the imbalance in trade flows needs to be corrected.

How to do it? One way is for China -- or Asian exporters, more generally -- to let their currencies rise on world markets. The other way, which IMF economist Blanchard raised this week, would be to devalue the dollar, the euro and other developed-world currencies.

"The advanced economies as a whole may need to depreciate their currencies so as to increase their net exports," Blanchard said.

The less well-advertised side of the equation: If the dollar is worth less, then imports, regardless of their source, will cost more. U.S. exports will be proportionately cheaper -- a good thing for American businesses trying to become more competitive in overseas markets -- but everything from iPods to jeans to the latest Barbie doll would jump in price.

The ideas offered by the IMF "could certainly reorder the balance of the international economy, but not in a way that benefits the average person in the U.S.," said J. Craig Shearman, vice president of government affairs for the National Retail Federation.

He continued: "If a few factories have an increase in exports, that is good for them, but it leaves the vast majority of people paying more for consumer goods. Talking about consuming less and saving more is a nice, ivory tower approach. But it is not real world economics. People have to put clothes on their children's backs and food on the table."

Wal-Mart declined to comment.

Consolidation

"Fiscal consolidation" is another idea promoted by IMF leaders. Again, the aim seems unobjectionable: The United States and other developed-world governments ran record deficits during the crisis, both to pay for stimulus programs and because tax and other receipts cratered. Across the developed world, the IMF says, government debt will rise from about 80 percent of economic output before the crisis to roughly 115 percent of output in 2014.

That's considered a dangerous trajectory, and IMF officials say that by next year, governments need to announce "credible" plans to cut their annual deficits, turn them into surpluses and start paying off what is owed.

The level of the correction needed is large, perhaps 10 percent of gross domestic product. In the United States, that would amount to roughly $1.4 trillion annually, to be cut from government programs or raised through new taxes.

Better-than-expected growth would help, or increases in productivity, or even surprises in the form of new technologies. But what's on the horizon is, more likely, a difficult reckoning -- one that Greece is facing and that other developed nations know is in the offing, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said in an interview Thursday.

"We're all in the same boat," Lagarde said as she looked ahead to a tough debate in France over changes in pension rules that will make not just government workers but also many in the private sector add years before their expected retirements.

The IMF is studying issues such as which taxes should be raised and which programs should be cut to make "consolidation" as painless as possible. But it views a longer working life as an important tool -- one that would save large amounts of money in the future without cutting spending and decreasing economic activity today.

In the United States, a new fiscal commission is beginning to study how to bring U.S. government debt into line.

"You will see many headlines complaining and moaning and stirring the pot," Lagarde said, as issues such as pension reform are debated. But ultimately, she said, "there is no way out."

Saturday, April 24, 2010

UFO activity at Nuke Sites to be revealed at the NPC


UFO Activity at Nuclear Weapons Sites
to be Revealed at the National Press Club

UFO researcher Robert Hastings and former U.S. Air Force Captain Robert Salas are currently organizing a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. to address the vital issue of UFO incursions at U.S. nuclear weapons sites over the past six decades. The purpose of the event is to focus worldwide media attention on the reality and importance of the situation.

To date, more than 100 former or retired U.S. Air Force personnel—once trusted to operate or guard weapons of mass destruction—have come forward and revealed ongoing UFO surveillance of, and occasional interference with, our nuclear weapons. This information alters the historical perspective on the nuclear arms race and much, much more. The fact that the Pentagon and CIA have successfully kept the truth from public view for so long is in itself mind-boggling.

While most of the reported UFO incursions apparently involved simple observation, a few of them resulted in the shutdown of large numbers of nuclear missiles. This is more than a Cold War issue because these incidents continue to occur. Media reports of UFO activity at nuclear weapons sites have been published as recently as March 2009. Nuclear weapons proliferation is an ominous and crucial concern, affecting all of humanity. When combined with the secrecy surrounding UFO phenomenon, there exists a nexus of enormous importance.

At the press conference, scheduled for September 27, 2010, a dozen ex-USAF personnel, including Mr. Salas, will discuss their nukes-related UFO experiences. By way of introduction, Mr. Hastings will briefly summarize his 37 years of research on the UFO-Nukes Connection. Following the statements of the witnesses, Mr. Salas will offer concluding remarks. The assembled members of the media will then have an opportunity to ask questions for an extended period.

To finance this event, Mr. Hastings and Mr. Salas are soliciting funds to cover the participants’ travel expenses, hotel accommodations and meals, as well as costs associated with the preparation of press kits. It is estimated that $15,000 will be required to fund the occasion.

This will be a non-profit event. A dedicated bank account has been set up to handle donations by organizations and individuals willing to support this important presentation. Following the press conference, any remaining funds will be donated to a charitable institution and the account closed. Information regarding balances, expenditure of funds, and other details may be obtained by writing to Mr. Salas at Rasalas@roadrunner.com.

This endeavor to present the facts about the UFO-Nukes Connection to the media, and people everywhere, is both historic and necessary. Our goal is to make the promise of open government on this issue a reality. With your help, a group of dedicated witnesses are prepared to spearhead the effort. Donations may be made at www.ufohastings.com by clicking on the Press Conference page. Any contribution, large or small, will be appreciated. Thank you for your support.

Robert Hastings, Robert Salas
www.ufohastings.com

See Also:


Source:
Ufochronicles.com / Ufohastings.com


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Heard the one about Goldman Sachs and the volcano?

Reuters, Ben Berkowitz and Aaron Pressman, AMSTERDAM/BOSTON, Fri Apr 23, 2010

Lava flows from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokul April 17, 2010.
 (Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

(Reuters) - Did you hear that Goldman Sachs made the Iceland volcano erupt? It did pretty well shorting airlines.

It's a joke, of course -- Goldman isn't quite that powerful -- and there are plenty of others like it as comedians, traders and the man on the street take potshots at Wall Street's biggest investment bank.

The gag about the volcano, which caused massive global travel disruptions and whacked airline stocks, has been making the rounds on Asian trading desks in recent days.

Ever since U.S. regulators filed fraud charges against the firm on April 16, Goldman has been the butt of just such a series of jokes.

Cartoonists in particular have found a rich vein of comedy with Goldman. One Washington Post panel shows a cop walking up to a couple of fat-cat bankers standing under a Goldman sign. 


One banker whispers to the other "Tell him we're innocent. And we'll hedge that by betting against our acquittal."

Another cartoon shows a Goldman executive being hauled off in handcuffs: "They say we created a fund that was designed to fail ... and it was indeed a successful failure ... but now we're being punished for our success ... this government's anti-business!"

Multiple Goldman Sachs spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.

GOLMANIUS AND SACSONIA

The jokes don't stop there, thanks to the Internet and legions of budding comedy writers.

Goldman shorted the Titanic and contributed to its sinking. So goes one story. New historical evidence proves that the Roman Empire was brought down by its founders Golmanius and Sacsonia. And so on.

Facebook features a page -- "liked" by 182 people -- with the title "Vampire Squids are far superior to Goldman Sachs." The name refers to the Rolling Stone magazine article published last summer that described the firm as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity."

U.S. late-night TV hosts took their digs too.

David Letterman weighed in with a Top Ten list of Goldman excuses. The highlight, at No. 6, was: "We were framed by evil menswear company Goldman Slacks."

His rival Jay Leno had his own take:

"Just four days after Goldman Sachs cost investors $12 billion by failing to tell them that they're being investigated for fraud, they gave out another $5.4 billion in bonuses. Huh? Even Somali pirates are going, 'Come on!'"

The Daily Show host Jon Stewart lined up this zinger: "For what? $5.4 billion in bonuses to your fraud division?"

Maybe the sharpest dig came from comedian Stephen Colbert. He riffed on Goldman's once strong position in Washington, where mAlign Centerany of its former executives have taken on powerful jobs over the years.

"Why are government employees filing a civil suit against Goldman Sachs? That's just going to be embarrassing in a few years when they all go back to work at Goldman Sachs," he asked.

(Reporting by Ben Berkowitz in Amsterdam and Aaron Pressman in Boston. Editing by Robert MacMillan)

Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein attends a speech by
 U.S. President Barack Obama about Wall Street reform at Cooper Union in
 New York April 22, 2010. (Credit: Reuters/Natalie Behring
)

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Chairman of the National Economic Council Lawrence Summers
 speaks at the PEW Financial Reform Project forum at the National
 Press Club in Washington, March 18, 2010. (Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing)