Merrill Tries To Muzzle a Blog

Rosenberg was Merrill's chief economist, which is not a position easily attained or from which such proclamations are taken lightly. Indeed, Rosenberg appears to have been the first of the major investment bank economists to call the coming recession, as this Bloomberg story recounts. Durden says that Rosenberg was a hit with his readers because his reports have, "phenomenal fundamental analysis verified by facts, leading to conclusions that are objective."

Rosenberg announced he was leaving Merrill after the merger with Bank of America to return to his native Toronto. Perhaps he left because he believes we're in the ninth year of a 18-year down-cycle. Or perhaps he didn't feel his point of view fit into the bank's.

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DMCA takedown requests are commonplace for Web sites like YouTube that feature videos or MP3s, but relatively rare for documents or, in this case, excerpts of documents. Considering that the U.S. government is a huge stakeholder in Bank of America's business, including its research products, it's a little galling to see the DMCA law used to remove analysis of the country's economic condition from the public eye.

Durden believes that as Zero Hedge's readership has grown to 100,000 hits per day, Merrill Lynch felt it could not longer ignore his impact on that readership. He is taking the offending posts down this evening—but hasn't yet ruled out consulting a lawyer on his options.

© 2012 Slate.com

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