Count Grigory Orlov, by Fyodor Rokotov

Orlov (Russian: Орлóв) is the name of a Russian noble family which produced several distinguished statesmen, diplomatists and soldiers. The family first gained distinction in the person of four Orlov brothers, of whom the second eldest was Catherine the Great's paramour, and the two junior were notable military commanders.

Orlov brothers[link]

Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov[link]

Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (1734–1783), who created for his family such an illustrious Russian history, was the son of Gregory Orlov, governor of Great Novgorod. He was educated in the corps of cadets at St Petersburg, began his military career in the Seven Years' War, and was wounded at Zorndorf. While serving in the capital as an artillery officer he caught the fancy of Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseyevna, and was the leader of the conspiracy which resulted in the dethronement and death of her husband Peter III (1762).

After the event, Catherine raised him to the rank of count and made him adjutant-general, director-general of engineers and general-in-chief. Their illegitimate son, Aleksey, was born in 1762 and named after the village of Bobriki where he lived; from him descends the line of Counts Bobrinskoy. Orlov's influence became paramount after the discovery of the Khitrovo plot to murder the whole Orlov family. At one time the empress thought of marrying her favorite, but the plan was frustrated by her influential advisor Nikita Panin.

Grigory Orlov sold his huge manor and castle in Gatchina to the crown in 1783.

Gregory Orlov was no statesman, but he had a quick wit, a fairly accurate appreciation of current events, and was a useful and sympathetic counsellor during the earlier portion of Catherine's reign. He entered with enthusiasm, both from patriotic and from economical motives, into the question of the improvement of the condition of the serfs and their partial emancipation. As the President of the Free Economic Society, he was also their most prominent advocate in the great commission of 1767, though he aimed primarily at pleasing the empress, who affected great liberality in her earlier years.

He was one of the earliest propagandists of the Slavophile idea of the emancipation of the Christians from Ottoman rule. In the year of 1771 he was sent as first Russian plenipotentiary to the peace congress of Focşani; but he failed in his mission, owing partly to the obstinacy of the Ottomans, and partly (according to Panin) to his own outrageous insolence. On returning without permission to his Marble Palace at St Petersburg, he found himself superseded in the empress's favor by the younger Potemkin.

In order to rekindle Catherine's affection, Grigory presented to her one of the greater diamonds of the world, known ever since as the Orlov Diamond. When Grigory Potemkin, in 1771, superseded Vasil'chikov, Orlov became of no account at court and went abroad for some years. He returned to Russia a few months previously to his death, which took place at Moscow in 1783. For some time before his death he was out of his mind. Late in life he married his niece, Madame Zinovyeva, but left no children by that marriage.

Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov[link]

Count Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov (1737–1808), brother of the above, was by far the ablest member of the Orlov count family, and was also remarkable for his athletic strength and dexterity. In the palace revolution of 1762 he played an even more important part than his brother Gregory. It was he who conveyed Peter III to the chateau of Ropsha and murdered him there with his own hands.

In the 19th century, Orlov trotters were considered the fastest in Europe.

In 1770 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the fleet sent against the Turks, whose far superior navy he annihilated at Chesme, a victory which led to the so-called Orlov Revolt and conquest of the Greek archipelago. For this exploit he received, in 1774, the honorific epithet Chesmensky, and the privilege of quartering the imperial arms in his shield.

The same year, on Catherine's request, he went to Livorno to seduce and bring to Russia the so-called Princess Tarakanova, who proclaimed herself daughter of Empress Elizabeth. Having succeeded in this unusual commission, he went into retirement and settled at Moscow.

There he devoted himself to breeding livestock, and produced the "finest race of horses" then known, the Orlov Trotter, by crossing Arabian Horses with the heavier but lively Friesian and with tall, swift English racing stallions. He also refined and popularized a breed of chicken, now called the Orloff in his honor.^[1] In the war with Napoleon during 1806-07, Orlov commanded the militia of the fifth district, which was placed on a war footing almost entirely at his own expense. He left an estate worth five million roubles and 30,000 serfs.

Beside of animal breeding he also formed the first Roma-choir (1774), selected out of his numerous Roma serfs (it were Xeladitka also called Russka Rom, not as sometimes thought imported slaves from Moldavië (Vlach) or from Oekraine (Servi-Rom). The choir reached an enormous popularity under the Russian aristocracy, and was copied by several other aristocrats training their Roma to sing in choirs. In 1807 the Orlov choir was given freedom. They could settle themselves in Moskow (which was forbidden to all other Roma) and lived and behaved as the aristocrats around them. Their offspring attended school and university and became the first Roma-intelligentsia. The Roma choirs influenced the image of the Roma in Russia a lot until at least the 20th century.^[2].

The other Counts Orlov[link]

Portrait of Ivan Orlov, by Fyodor Rokotov.

The oldest and least notable of four Orlov brothers was Ivan Grigoryevich Orlov (1733–1791). After his father's death in 1746 he became the head of the family; all Orlov brothers looked upon him and respected him as their father. He led a modest life and managed the Orlovs' estates. Even after the palace revolution of 1762, when the Orlovs became counts and got enormous fortune, he apparently refused any state career and titles and continued to live in Moscow and the Orlovs' estates.

The fourth Orlov brother was Count Fyodor Grigoryevich (1741–1796), Russian general, who first distinguished himself in the Seven Years' War. He participated with his elder brothers in the coup d'etat of 1762, after which he was appointed chief procurator of the Governing Senate. During the first Turkish War of Catherine II he served under Admiral Spiridov, and was one of the first to break through the Turkish line of battle at Chesme. Subsequently, at Hydra, he put to flight eighteen Turkish vessels. These exploits were, by the order of Catherine, commemorated by a triumphal column, crowned with naval trophies, erected at Tsarskoe Selo. Friend of the Count, Count Saint-Germain, gave him assistance while in Turkey by creating Russian Tea, or as they nicknamed it "Acqua Benedetta", which helped the Russian troops fight the climate of the land. In 1775 he retired from the public service. Orlov was never married, but had five natural children, whom Catherine ennobled and legitimatized, as may be seen below.

The youngest Orlov brother was Count Vladimir Grigorievich (1743–1831). He was just 19 when his elder brothers came to power, and they deemed it wise to send him to the Leipzig University. Although his education was spasmodic at best, the Empress appointed him President of the Russian Academy of Sciences upon his return four years later. His ignorance of Latin led him to expel the language from the Academy; it was replaced with German, in which he was fairly fluent. On this account, he came to patronize German scientists such as Peter Simon Pallas and invited many of them to Russia. In 1767 he accompanied Catherine II during her journey along the Volga, documenting it in a journal. After his brother fell into disgrace, Vladimir was fired from his post and retired to his villages.

He had several daughters, one of them a wife of Nikita Petrovich Panin, and a son - Count Grigory Vladimirovich (1777 – 22 June 1826) - who predeceased his father. Like him, Grigory the Younger devoted himself to the sciences. In November 1799 he married Countess Anna Saltykova, left Russia and traveled in France, Italy and Switzerland. While living in Paris, Orlov translated into French some fables by Ivan Krylov. After the death of his wife, Count Orlov returned to Russia. His chief works are Mémoirs historiques, politiques et littéraires sur le Royaume de Naples, translated into German, English and Italian, and embracing the History of Lower Italy from the earliest times until 1820; Histoire des Arts en Italie, the two volumes of which treat of music, the others of painting; Voyages dans une Partie de la France, ou Lettres descriptives et historiques (Paris, 1824). From 25 January 1809 he was an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All of his three sons were born out of wedlock.

Princes Orlov[link]

Alexey Fyodorovich Orlov[link]

The Eagle Monument in Gatchina refers to the Orlovs' surname, derived from the Russian word for eagle

Prince Alexey Fyodorovich Orlov (1787–1862), the natural son of Count Fyodor Grigoryevich, was born October 8 (October 19, 1786 New Style) in Moscow and took part in all the Napoleonic wars from 1805 to the capture of Paris. For his services as commander of the cavalry regiment of the Life Guards on the occasion of the rebellion of 1825 he was created a count, and in the Turkish War of 1828–1829 rose to the rank of lieutenant-general. It is from this time that the brilliant diplomatic career of Orlov begins. He was the Russian plenipotentiary at the Peace of Adrianople, and in 1833 was appointed Russian ambassador at Constantinople, holding at the same time the post of commander-in-chief of the Black Sea fleet. He was, indeed, one of the most trustworthy agents of Nicholas I, whom in 1837 he accompanied on his foreign tour. From 1844 to 1856 he was in charge of the infamous Third Section, or secret police.

In 1854 he was sent to Vienna to bring Austria over to the side of Russia, but without success. In 1856 he was one of the plenipotentiaries who concluded the peace of Paris. The same year he was raised to the dignity of prince, and was appointed president of the imperial council of state and of the council of ministers. In 1857, during the absence of the emperor, he presided over the commission formed to consider the question of the emancipation of the serfs, to which he was altogether hostile. He died May 9 (May 21) 1862 in St. Petersburg.

Other Princes Orlov[link]

Coat of arms of the Orlov family

His only son, Prince Nikolay Alexeyevich Orlov (1827–1885), was a distinguished Russian diplomatist and author. He first adopted a military career, and was seriously wounded in the Crimean War. Subsequently he entered the diplomatic service, and represented Russia successively at Brussels (1860–1870), Paris (1870–1882) and Berlin (1882–1885). As a publicist he stood in the forefront of reform. His articles on corporal punishment, which appeared in Russkaya Starina in 1881, brought about its abolition. He also advocated tolerance towards the dissenters. His wife, Katherine (Kathi) Orlov had a close relationship with Otto von Bismarck in the early 1860s. Bismarck's wife said she was not jealous and credited her with a long period of Bismarck's happiness. ("Bismarck: The Man and the Statesman by A J P Taylor. Sutton History Classics)

Prince Alexey Fyodorovich also had a brother, Mikhail Fyodorovich Orlov (1788–1842), who took a most active part in the Napoleonic wars and received the rank of General-major upon returning to Russia in 1814. A friend of Alexander Pushkin and convinced liberal himself, he now concentrated his attention on the projects for emancipation of the serfs and introduction of republican government in Russia. Since 1818, he was in charge of the Kishinev section of the Decembrist society. After the revolt failed, he was arrested but presently released on bail, through his brother's mediation. Thereupon he settled in Moscow and published a pioneering study of the state credit.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

See also[link]

• The Orlov Diamond
• Orlov trotter
• Marble Palace
• Gatchina Palace
• Aleksandr Orlov (meerkat)

References[link]

• Palmer, Elena. Peter III - Der Prinz von Holstein. Sutton Publishing, Germany 2005 ISBN 978-3-89702-788-6

External links[link]

• Orlov Trotter Homepage
• Orlov Garden in Gatchina
• Orlov Gates in Tsarskoe Selo
• Icons of Power: Empress of Ambition Catherine the Great

Dmitry Orlov (Russian: Дмитрий Орлов born 1962) is a Russian-American engineer and a writer on subjects related to "potential economic, ecological and political decline and collapse in the United States," something he has called “permanent crisis”.^[1] Orlov believes collapse will be the result of huge military budgets, government deficits, an unresponsive political system and declining oil production.^[2]

Orlov was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and moved to the United States at the age of 12. He has a BS in Computer Engineering and an MA in Applied Linguistics. He was an eyewitness to the collapse of the Soviet Union over several extended visits to his Russian homeland between the late 1980s and mid-1990s.^[3]

In 2005 and 2006 Orlov wrote a number of articles comparing the collapse-preparedness of the U.S. and the Soviet Union published on small Peak Oil related sites.^[4] Orlov’s article "Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US" was very popular at EnergyBulletin.Net.^[5][6]

In 2006 Orlov published an online manifesto, "The New Age of Sail." In 2007 he and his wife sold their apartment in Boston and bought a sailboat, fitted with solar panels and six months supply of propane, and capable of storing a large quantity of food stuffs. He calls it a “survival capsule.” He uses a bicycle for transportation. Having bartered vodka for necessities during one of his trips to the post-collapse Russia, he says "When faced with a collapsing economy, one should stop thinking of wealth in terms of money." ^[7]

He continues to write regularly on his “Club Orlov” blog and at EnergyBulletin.Net.^[8]

[edit] Reinventing Collapse

Orlov’s book Reinventing Collapse:The Soviet Example and American Prospects, published in 2008, further details his views.^[9] The New Yorker's Ben McGrath writes that Orlov describes "superpower collapse soup" common to both the U.S. and the Soviet Union: “a severe shortfall in the production of crude oil, a worsening foreign-trade deficit, an oversized military budget, and crippling foreign debt.” He believes the U.S. will fare worse because Americans have fewer backup plans. Orlov told interviewer McGrath that in recent months financial professionals have begun to make up more of his audience, joining "back-to-the-land types," "peak oilers," and those sometimes derisively called “doomers."

Author James Howard Kunstler, who has been described as “one of Orlov's greatest fans” but denies he is a “complete ‘collapsitarian’”,^[7] described the book as an “exceptionally clear, authoritative, witty, and original view of our prospects.”^[10]

In his review of the book, commentator Thom Hartmann writes that Orlov holds that the Soviet Union hit a “soft crash” because centralized planning, housing, agriculture, and transportation left an infrastructure private citizens could co-opt so that no one had to pay rent or go homeless and people showed up for work, even when they were not paid. He writes that Orlov believes the U.S. will have a hard crash, more like Germany’s Weimar Republic of the 1920s.^[11]

Writing on Atlanta’s Creative Loafing, Wayne Davis considers Orlov's views and anecdotal stories to be an easy read for a serious subject. Orlov gives practical advice, like when to start accumulating goods for barter purposes and the need to buy goods that would sustain local communities - "hand tools, simple medications (and morphine), guns and ammo, sharpening stones, bicycles (and lots of tires with patch kits), etc." Orlov writes: “Much of the transformation is psychological and involves letting go of many notions that we have been conditioned to accept unquestioningly. In order to adapt, you will need plenty of free time. Granting yourself this time requires a leap of faith: you have to assume the future has already arrived.” He also advises: “Beyond the matter of personal safety, you will need to understand who has what you need and how to get it from them.”^[12]

The EnergyBulletin.Net review states that “Orlov's main goal is to get Americans to understand what it will mean to live without an economy, when cash is virtually useless and most people won't be getting any income anyway because they'll be out of a job.”^[13] The review by author Carolyn Baker, PhD, notes that Orlov emphasizes that "when faced with a collapsing economy, one should stop thinking of wealth in terms of money." Physical resources and assets, as well as relationships and connections are worth more than cash and those who know how to "do it themselves" and operate on the margins of society will do better than those whose incomes and lifestyles have plummeted.^[14]

Not all commentary has been favorable. In a 2009 article in Mother Jones Virginia Heffernan labels Orlov's position as “collapsitarianism” which she believes involves “a desire for complete economic meltdown” and writes that Orlov espouses “bourgeois survivalism.”^[15]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Photograph of Dmitry Orlov.
• Russia Today interview with Orlov, March 2009 (also on Youtube).
• Dmitry Orlov: Social Collapse Best Practices, The Long Now Foundation, at Fora.Tv (Short version on Youtube).
• Dmitry Orlov Interview on KPFA’s “Guns and Butter”, August 5, 2009.
• Max Keiser interview of Dmitry Orlov, August 1, 2009.
• Video: Dmitry Orlov – Seizing the Mid-Collapse Moment, at Creative-I site, public lecture at the Davenport Hotel, Dublin, Ireland, June 9, 2009.

Michael C. Ruppert
Michael Ruppert
Retired
LAPD narcotics investigator
Allegiance	United States of America
Rank	LAPD narcotics investigator
Other work	Whistleblower and author of Crossing The Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil.

Michael C. Ruppert (born Feb. 3 1951) is an American author,^[1] a former Los Angeles Police Department officer, ^[2] and investigative journalist and peak oil theorist.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Until 2006, he published and edited From The Wilderness, a newsletter and website covering a range of topics including (international) politics, the C.I.A., peak oil, civil liberties, drugs, economics, corruption and 9/11 alternative theories.^{[7][page needed]} He is also the author of Crossing The Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil^[1] and was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Collapse.^[3]

Currently, he is president of Collapse Network, Inc,^[8] and hosts The Lifeboat Hour on Progressive Radio Network.^[9]

Activism[link]

On November 15, 1996, then Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch visited Los Angeles' Locke High School for a town hall meeting. At the meeting, Ruppert publicly confronted Deutch, saying that in his experience as an LAPD narcotics officer he had seen evidence of CIA complicity in drug dealing.^[10]

Ruppert went on to become an investigator and journalist,^[11] and established the publication From The Wilderness, a watchdog publication that exposed governmental corruption, including his experience with CIA drug dealing activities.^[12]

Ruppert is the author of Crossing The Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil,^[13] published in September 2004. Crossing The Rubicon claims that Vice President Dick Cheney, the US government, and Wall Street had a well-developed awareness of and colluded with the perpetrators of 9/11.

Ruppert appears in the documentary films The 911 Report You Never Saw - The Great Conspiracy, Peak Oil - Imposed by Nature ^[14], Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, The End of Suburbia, American Drug War: The Last White Hope and Collapse.

[edit] From The Wilderness

From The Wilderness was a newsletter published from 1998 to 2006 by the media company From The Wilderness Publications. The newsletter covered political and governmental issues. It was published eleven times per year but featured weekly updates online. Critics such as David Corn^[15] and Norman Solomon argued that Ruppert on occasion veered off into making unsubstantiated conspiracy theory claims.

In the summer of 2006, claiming government harassment and fearing for his life, Ruppert left the United States for Venezuela, vowing not to return.^[16]

The Ashland Daily Tidings would later report that, in June 2006, Ruppert had accused a former female employee of burglarizing the offices of From The Wilderness, a case in which Ruppert himself was considered a potential suspect. Around the same time, the former female employee accused him in turn of sexual harassment. Ruppert would later in 2009 be ordered to pay a $125,000 fine by the Oregon labor board in the case. The female employee claimed Ruppert fired her after she refused his sexual advances, Ruppert denies this and claims he fired her for "disruptive behavior, poor work performance and wearing inappropriate clothing". The former employee further claims Ruppert approached her in her office "wearing only his underwear and a smile", something Ruppert doesn't deny.^[17][18][19]

The end of From The Wilderness was announced in a post at the website on November 7, 2006. Reasons for the closure were detailed in the article. Ruppert claimed his bad health, glitches that disabled their web store, "problems of human origin" and his departure to Venezuela had led to the demise of From The Wilderness.^[20]

Later that year, Ruppert flew to Toronto, Canada, for medical treatment. The following statement was posted on the From The Wilderness website on November 26, 2006:

"Personally, I am through forever with investigative journalism and public lecturing. I am leaving public life. It is my hope that by continuing to repeat this sincere position that many of the inexplicable difficulties which have dominated my life over the past months will ease. It is time to move on. I spent twenty-seven years as a dedicated public activist and that is something which I am no longer able or inclined to do. The price was ultimately too great."^[21]

After shutting down, From the Wilderness was sued by their landlord for back rent owed on their Ashland office space.^[17]

Further activities[link]

Some of his posting from him on the From the Wilderness website said Ruppert was back in New York, receiving treatment from "sympathetic physicians" for a variety of ailments.

Ruppert still occasionally contributes to the Collapse Network news desk run by former From the Wilderness associate and longtime friend, Jenna Orkin.

As recently as 2010, Ruppert lived in Los Angeles, California and launched Collapse Network to build sustainable communities across the world. But in 2011 he announced on his Lifeboat Hour radio show that he was relocating to Sonoma County, California, because he thought that it would be a safer location in the event of societal collapse.

Critics[link]

Columnist Norman Solomon has argued that Ruppert has a flawed analytical model. "Some of the problem is in how he characterizes news reports. These citations can be narrowly factual yet presented in a misleading way. Yes, such-and-such newspaper reported that thus-and-so claim was made by so-and-so. The paper reported on the claim, but that doesn't mean the claim is true."^[22]

Columnist David Corn has also criticized Ruppert's methodology, and dismisses the idea that conspiracy theorizing is useful: "In fact, out-there conspiracy theorizing serves the interests of the powers-that-be by making their real transgressions seem tame in comparison."^[23] Ruppert responded with an open public letter to Corn. Corn is not able to disprove any of Ruppert's claims.^[24]

Bibliography[link]

• Ruppert, Michael C., Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, New Society Publishers, 2004. ISBN 0-86571-540-8
• Ruppert, Michael C., A Presidential Energy Policy, New World Digital Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1-61539-257-5
• Ruppert, Michael C., Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1-60358-264-3

See also[link]

• Counter Misinformation Team
• Michel Chossudovsky
• Cynthia McKinney

References[link]

External links[link]

• Mike Ruppert lectures and interviews
• Say My F%&$*# Name
• Mike Ruppert's official website
• From the Wilderness - Michael Ruppert's newsletter and website
• Act 2: From the Wilderness' Peak Oil Blog
• The 2009 documentary Collapse
• Roger Ebert reviews Collapse
• Collapse on Youtube An interview with Michael Ruppert

v t e Peak oil Core issues Peak oil Mitigation of peak oil Predicting the timing of peak oil Hubbert peak theory Olduvai theory Results/responses Hirsch report Rimini protocol Price of petroleum 2000s energy crisis Energy crisis Export Land Model Food vs. fuel Oil reserves Pickens Plan Simple living Swing producer Transition Towns People Albert Bartlett Colin J. Campbell David Goodstein John Michael Greer Richard Heinberg M. King Hubbert James Kunstler Jeremy Leggett Dale Allen Pfeiffer Richard Rainwater Matthew Simmons Richard C. Duncan Kenneth S. Deffeyes Books The End of Oil The Long Emergency Out of Gas The Party's Over Power Down Beyond Oil Films A Crude Awakening Collapse The End of Suburbia Oil Factor PetroApocalypse Now? How Cuba Survived Peak Oil What a Way to Go Gashole Organizations ASPO The Oil Drum Energy Watch Group ODAC OPEC OAPEC IEA Post Carbon Institute Other "peaks" Peak car Peak coal Peak copper Peak phosphorus Peak gas Peak uranium Peak water Peak wheat Peak wood

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Max Keiser
Max Keiser in a London taxi
Born	Timothy Maxwell Keiser (1960-01-23) January 23, 1960 (age 52) New Rochelle, New York
Education	NYU
Occupation	Journalist
Notable credit(s)	Hollywood Stock Exchange, People & Power, The Oracle with Max Keiser, Karmabanque
Relatives	German and Scottish Ancestry, Hugh Maxwell, V 1777-1860
Website
http://maxkeiser.com

Timothy Maxwell "Max" Keiser (born January 23, 1960) is an American broadcaster and film-maker. He hosts Keiser Report, a financial program broadcast on RT (formerly Russia Today).^[1] Keiser also anchors On the Edge, a program of news and analysis hosted by Iran's Press TV.^[2] He hosted the New Year's Eve special, The Keiser's Business Guide to 2010 for BBC Radio 5 Live.^[3] Keiser presented a season of The Oracle with Max Keiser on BBC World News. Previously he produced and appeared regularly in the TV series People & Power on the Al-Jazeera English network. He also presents a weekly show about finance and markets on London's Resonance FM, as well as writing for The Huffington Post.^[4]

In addition to his broadcasting work Keiser is known for his invention of "Virtual Specialist Technology", a software system used by the Hollywood Stock Exchange.

Early career[link]

Keiser has been involved with markets and finance for 25 years. He started his career as a stock broker on Wall Street after graduating from New York University.

Hollywood Stock Exchange[link]

Keiser is the creator, co-founder and former CEO of HSX Holdings/Hollywood Stock Exchange, later sold to Cantor Fitzgerald.^[5] Alongside Michael R. Burns, he co-created the Hollywood Stock Exchange, ^[6] which allows traders to exchange virtual securities, such as "MovieStocks" and "StarBonds", with convertible virtual currency, the Hollywood Dollar.

Keiser is also the co-founder of HSX films, which went on to make almost a dozen films including Mixed Signals, Six-String Samurai, Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 and Girl. The company was bought by Ignite Entertainment/Lionsgate.

Broadcasting career[link]

Keiser presented Rumble at the Box Office^[7] for NBC's Access Hollywood. He also produced and hosted the weekly talk show Buy, Sell, Hold for CBS radio's KLSX in Los Angeles. Currently, he presents The Truth About Markets on Resonance 104.4 FM in London and on RDU 98.5 in Christchurch, New Zealand.

[edit] People & Power

Keiser produced ten short documentary films covering aspects of financial markets for Al Jazeera's series People & Power.^[8] The films include Rigged Markets,^[9] Money Geyser,^[10] Death of the Dollar,^[11] Peaked,^[12] Extraordinary Antics,^[13] Savers vs Speculators,^[14] Banking On It,^[15] Private Finance or Public Swindle?^[16] and Focus on Locusts.^[17]

[edit] The Oracle with Max Keiser

A pilot episode was produced for Al-Jazeera English titled The Oracle. This was developed into a series for BBC World News.^[18] The series first aired on 9 January 2009 and ran for ten episodes. It explored financial current affairs from the perspective of prediction markets. It was intended to be a humorous take on financial news before it happens.

[edit] On The Edge

A weekly financial commentary show which started in 2009 and is broadcast on Press TV, featuring interviews with well known alternative economists.^[19]

[edit] The Keiser Report

Since September 2009, Keiser has hosted The Keiser Report with financial news and analysis, on the RT network. The 30-minute program is produced three times a week. Stacy Herbert is the co-host and banters with Max on headlines and commentary.^[20]

An episode broadcast in September 2011 featured an interview with comedienne Rosanne Barr who stated that her solution to the financial crisis was to "bring back the guillotine".^[21]

Financial punditry[link]

Keiser has appeared as a financial pundit on a number of news networks. Keiser called for a "fatwā" against Hank Paulson^[22] on Al Jazeera in response to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). In a later broadcast Keiser said "Paulson stinks".^[23] Keiser has advised investors to buy silver bullion and physical silver, promoting the metal as a store of value.

Activism[link]

Karmabanque[link]

Keiser founded the hedge fund Karmabanque, which sought to profit from any decline in equity-value of companies that are susceptible to boycott from environmental groups.^[24] The hedge fund's progress was followed monthly in The Ecologist magazine.^[25] Its targets included Coca-Cola^[26] and McDonald's.

The Karmabanque hedge fund project was designed to simultaneously short-sell companies while funnelling profits into environmental and ethical-business pressure groups which further act to drive down the price. Describing the project Keiser stated, "The Internet allows people, activists, from all over the world to gather, or swarm, and hit a company where it hurts most - in their stock price".^[27]

Extraordinary Antics[link]

In the Al-Jazeera short film Extraordinary Antics,^[28] Keiser travelled to Milan and Venice to find out how CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady and his fellow CIA agents spent $500,000 on a procedure known as extraordinary rendition - a practice which is illegal and caused an Egyptian citizen, who had been granted asylum in Italy, to be abducted in order to face torture in Cairo.

The CIA was prosecuted for the case and Mr. Lady was found guilty in a Milan court. He was sentenced on 9 November 2009 to nine years in prison according to the Guardian.^{[citation needed]} This verdict was upheld on appeal. The US refuses to extradite Mr. Lady to Italy.^[29]

Crash JP Morgan - buy silver[link]

Max Keiser has labeled JPMorgan "the biggest financial terrorist on Wall St" in relation to their alleged manipulation of the price of silver.^[30] Keiser started a campaign called "Crash JP Morgan - buy silver",^[31][32][33] whereby people buy silver, thus raising its price and leaving JPMorgan with a huge short position to cover, the margin of which are collateralized by JPMorgan's own stock price, bankrupting itself. Based on the collateralization of silver by the price of its shares and his allegation that JPMorgan's position is an overwhelmingly large naked short position, Keiser predicted that the a per-ounce silver price exceeding JPMorgan's stock price will not only crash JPMorgan but unsettle the underpinnings of the dollar, which he claims are essentially confetti.

Adweek magazine described Keiser as "the most visible character in an underground movement that has spurred hundreds of blog posts and videos, and played some small part in driving up the price of precious metals".^[34] However, Keiser's prediction that JPMorgan would go bust if silver hit 47 dollars has failed to materialise, drawing criticism from the financial community.

Criticism[link]

• The Guardian newspaper, in an item titled "Mad Max", described Keiser's Karmabanque hedge fund as a "fantastical scheme" and accused him of trying to exist "beyond the normal forces and controls of society".^[35]

• Keiser drew criticism at the 2000 ShowBiz Expo in Las Vegas when he said of media content that "Everything is inescapably going to a price point called free". In response Kevin Tsujihara, executive V.P. of New Media at Warner Bros., commented that "Piracy.com" will be the victor if superior content is available on sites supported by advertisements.^[36]

• In 2005 Steven Milloy, the "Junk Science" commentator, demanded that Keiser be removed from the panel of the Triple Bottom Line Investing conference, where he was scheduled to appear. Milloy accused Keiser of making threats against his organization^[37] and petitioned sponsors Calvert Investments and KLD Research & Analytics to withdraw from the project.^[38] Robert Rubenstein, founder of conference organiser Brooklyn Bridge, stated that Keiser's comments "do not constitute a threat to person or property and are not related to the conference or the content that will be presented there".

• Referring to Keiser's Karmabanque project, a spokeswoman for Ryanair said, "Since they put Ryanair on their list our share price has gone up by 10%. We are always delighted to be part of a list which includes Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Wal-Mart".^[39] However, on the same day The Hindu published an article in which Howard Millar, Ryanair deputy chief executive, admitted that his company may be vulnerable to environmental pressure groups, stating, "I am concerned that there is a continuing media campaign and the concern is that people might say 'maybe I will not fly on holiday and maybe I will make a different choice'".^[40]

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Error account - a term often mentioned by Max Keiser
• Central bank or Reserve bank
• Gold standard - where paper currency is backed up by the value of gold
• Hollywood Accounting

References[link]