First They Came For Tyler Durden...

While I'm no economist, a lot of the blogs I read on a regular basis are econ blogs: Atrios, Roubini, Krugman, CalcRisk, Bonddad, Big Picture, and Baseline Scenario are all excellent sources of serious economic analysis. But the one blog that has really been a great source of inside dirt on the banks has been Zero Hedge, run by the mysterious "Tyler Durden".

The great thing about the internet is that it makes information the great equalizer for the powerless. None of the economists that run these blogs are billionaires, but all of them saw this train wreck coming well before it happened. Reading their posts made me aware that America was headed for economic disaster, and none of them believe in this V-shaped recovery scenario that the markets are currently pushing.

That's why I'm not shocked to see that the banks are pushing back on the bear blogs, starting with an assault on Zero Hedge by Merrill Lynch. The attack on Durden comes as Merrill Lynch, now part of Bank of America, is trying to eliminate all traces of Merrill's ex-chief economist David Rosenberg, whose bearish predictions in 2008 were deadly accurate.

Yesterday Zero Hedge's anonymous lead blogger, who goes by the name Tyler Durden, received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act Takedown Notice for six posts in which he cites Merrill Lynch reports authored by Rosenberg or his staff. The reports are indeed proprietary—but for journalists and bloggers, their widespread distribution has long been a helpful way to decode movements in the markets. "It's their prerogative to impugn that there has been infringment," Durden told me. "But there are intangibles. Rosenberg is leaving the company and is soon to be replaced by someone who has a slightly more upbeat feel."

As a journalist, I've never had any trouble getting the contents of a report for a story I was working on. Indeed, press officials at banks have often seemed pleased or at least placated by the attribution that comes with citing their reports in a story. That said, James Ledbetter, The Big Money's editor, was turned down last October when he asked for this Web site to be added to a weekly distribution list of the Rosenberg report. "Our goal is to keep it proprietary for our clients," he was told by Merrill Lynch media relations. The reports can sometimes be tough for media to subscribe to (as opposed to making requests on a one-off basis).

Rosenberg's reports are different than those of the typical investment bank economist. The bearish, even cynical reports issued from his desk have been serving as a rallying cry for financial bloggers who don't believe that the economy is recovering as fast as financial cable networks, the mainstream media, the Obama administration, and, indeed, the investment banks themselves seem to suggest. "I would imagine that they would not be too happy with this kind of stuff floating around, especially the fact that he got more bearish towards the end of his tenure," said Durden.

Now BoA/Merrill is bringing in the copyright goons to attack anyone who has Rosenberg's information up, because after all, it's all about the appearance of solvency these days.

Our entire financial system runs on faith, and the keepers of that faith have been exposed as trillion dollar scam artists. The internet and econ bloggers have gone a long way towards getting the truth out to you. I try to follow as nothing more than a concerned American, given the power to try to make a difference. Forewarned is forearmed in this economy.

Guess Merrill should add me to the list. Rosenberg's reports are all over the web. But they went after Zero Hedge for a reason: the bear bloggers were right, and the multi-billion dollar trading giants were wrong. Payback is a bitch.

Never forget that. Oh, and Rosenberg? He's now chief economist at Toronto's Gluskin Sheff + Associates, and will continue to distribute his famed Rosenberg Report.

And the truth will set you free. Or, in this case, save you a few trillion.