The selloff in Facebook shares deepened on Tuesday, as investors continued to question the stock's valuation after Reuters reported that underwriters cut their revenue forecasts for the company before the IPO. Facebook's shares hit a low of $30.98 on Tuesday, 8.9 percent below Monday's close, and a loss of 18 percent from their $38 IPO price. – CNBC

Dominant Social Theme: The failure of Facebook is a success, nonetheless. It's Zen; don't try to understand it.

Free-Market Analysis: Facebook's stock price is down something like 20 percent from the IPO price and the damage control is being done two ways.

First, the downward spiral is being treated as business-as-usual. Second, it's being treated as part of a larger upward ascension.

We don't see it either way, of course. The Facebook fumble will now further confirm the general alienation that the US baby-boom generation is feeling when it comes to stocks and investing generally.

European Parliament Economic Affairs Committee: Financial Transaction Tax Should Be Imposed Even If Certain Member States Oppose It ... A financial transaction tax for Europe is debated and voted on this Wednesday (23 May, 2012). The EP wants to tighten the Commission proposal to include more trade and make evasion unprofitable. According to the economic affairs committee, the tax should be imposed even if certain member states oppose it. – High Frequency Trading Review

Dominant Social Theme: Because it can be done – badly – it is necessary to impose as efficiently as possible.

Free-Market Analysis: Another disastrous tax may be on the way, delivered to long-suffering Europeans by their Brussels representatives. Tomorrow, apparently, the European Parliament shall vote on a Financial Transaction Tax (FTA). Oh, no!

We've written about this horrible tax before. And the concept has been around forever. It's the tax that won't die. Brussels loves the tax because it provides revenue without Brussels having to do various extra-constitutional things involving the European Central Bank, etc.

No, this appears to be a fairly efficient transaction for Brussels to make, though we confess we are not certain of the power of Brussels to impose such a tax. The Eurocrats seem to believe they can.

The bad news from last week's passage of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act is that Americans can still be arrested on US soil and detained indefinitely without trial. Some of my colleagues would like us to believe that they fixed last year's infamous Sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA, which codified into law the unconstitutional notion that some Americans are not subject to the protections of the Constitution. However, nothing in this year's bill or amendments to the bill restored those constitutional rights.

Supporters of the one amendment that passed on this matter were hoping no one would notice that it did absolutely nothing. The amendment essentially stated that those entitled to habeas corpus protections are hereby granted habeas corpus protections. Thanks for nothing!

As Steve Vladeck, of American University's law school, wrote of this amendment:

"[T]he Gohmert Amendment does nothing whatsoever to address the central objections.... [I]t merely provides by statute a remedy that is already available to individuals detained within the United States; and says nothing about the circumstances in which individuals might actually be subject to military detention when arrested within the territory of United States.... Anyone within the United States who was subject to military detention before the FY2013 NDAA would be subject to it afterwards, as well..."

Europe finally awakes from its utopian dream ... Let's say this again, just in case a single sentient being on the planet has missed it: Germany cannot simply decide to bail Greece (or Spain, or Italy, etc) out of its debts. OK? However much Angela Merkel is nagged, berated, bullied and patronised by Barack Obama, David Cameron, or the BBC/Guardian axis that regard the preservation of the euro project as critical to their own interests, she cannot just revoke, in a unilateral act, the rules of German government or of the Bundesbank. Her persistent refusal to "take decisive action" of the kind that would suit the purposes of all those clamorous voices at the G8, is not "dithering", as it is so often described. In fact, it is not (or not entirely) to be explained in any of the mildly contemptuous ways that her tormentors suggest. It does not arise from an unthinking, superstitious terror instilled in her by the Weimar nightmare of hyper-inflation. Nor is it a narrow-minded expression of the German hausfrau's values of thrift and self-discipline. What Mrs Merkel is doing, quite appropriately, is defending the integrity of her national constitution, the economic principles on which her country's economic success has been built, and the interests of her own electorate. – Janet Daley/UK Telegraph

Dominant Social Theme: It is time to go.

Free-Market Analysis: Someone in the mainstream press has finally written the evident and obvious truth about the Eurozone: Angela Merkel does not have it in her power simply to declare a new pan-European empire.

For this clear – clarion-like – truth, we thank Janet Daley. As part of a truly remarkable show of force on this Monday, the UK Telegraph is in full cry with no fewer than half a dozen articles calling for the demise or reduction of the EU.

NATO to hand combat role to Afghans as it seeks way out of war... NATO will hand over the lead role in combat operations to Afghan forces across the country by mid-2013, alliance leaders said on Sunday as they charted a path out of a war that has lost public support and strained budgets in Western nations. A NATO summit in Chicago on Monday will formally endorse a U.S.-backed strategy for a gradual exit from Afghanistan, a move aimed at holding together an allied force scrambling to cope with France's decision to withdraw its troops early. – Reuters

Dominant Social Theme: This is merely a strategic reconfiguration.

Free-Market Analysis: For years now, we've tracked the expanding authoritarianism of the West – and in the process been subject to various labels. But lately, we have to think that our worldview doesn't look so very extreme. (Cold comfort, that.)

Just in the US (never mind Europe), the out-of-control government of Barack Obama has basically okayed an entire suspension of civil rights. At the discretion of the authorities, citizen can literally be arrested without cause for saying the wrong things at the wrong time.

EU Risks Moment of Anarchy, Chaos, Breakdown .... George Magnus, a senior economic adviser at UBS AG, discusses the risks facing Europe after the European Central Bank cut funding to Greece's banks. He talks with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television. – Bloomberg

Dominant Social Theme: Fear anarchy and trust in government.

Free-Market Analysis: Here is a question. What does anarchy mean? In dictionary definitions, it often means (primarily) "lack of government." Secondarily, it means lawlessness or political disorder.

But this secondary definition would seem to stem from the primary one – a lack of government.

So why do so many otherwise intelligent individuals equate a lack of government with lawlessness, especially pundits on the right that espouse free-market thinking generally?

People buy stocks, shares in a firm, mainly so as to delegate to the officers the job of securing for them economic prosperity. What else did all the folks who purchased the IPOs of Facebook want? (There is, of course, much more to living a successful human life than this but this is certainly not a negligible part of it–why all the fuss about poverty then?) Shareholders look to management for expertise with finances, etc. and those who take such a job promise shareholders this service.

This isn't so different from how people turn to other professionals, in medicine, education and such. When hired, these professionals have a responsibility to do their best to deliver on their promise. Once the shareholders gain wealth from this arrangement, they then are the ones who decide to what use the wealth should be put. They may spend it on their family, on some more or less important cause, on trivial pursuits, a nice vacation, or on a combination of many objectives.

The Daily Bell is pleased to present this exclusive interview with Robin Koerner (left).

Introduction: Robin Koerner is an influential political journalist who coined the term "Blue Republican." He also runs WatchingAmerica.com, a volunteer force some 400 strong that finds and translates news and views about the USA from all over the world. This interview was conducted prior to the announcement that Congressman and Presidential Candidate Ron Paul (whom Koerner backs) would not further contest various states in the Republican primary. However, Ron Paul has not given any indication he is actually dropping out of the race and Koerner's statements below thus stand as stated (unless Ron Paul issues further clarifications) without need of further clarification.

Here's a brief snippet:

Daily Bell: Why did you develop the Blue Republican nomenclature specifically?

Robin Koerner: The reasons are in the article that set it off, called "If You Love Peace, Become a Blue Republican (Just for a Year)."

Daily Bell: Is there a Democratic Republican dialectic? Are the Dems generally better than the Republicans?

Robin Koerner: The most important thing to know is that the Dems and Repubs are the same where it matters (civil rights, war and peace, crony-corporatism, selling out to special interests).

The interests of the two mainstream parties and their politicians mostly intersect, so I often refer often to the "Republicrats." It so happens that the momentum to get the country's political thinking out of the Republicrat box is inspired by a Republican, so for that reason alone, I say the Republicans are better right now than the Democrats. More generally, the pro-liberty movements is definitely reshaping the Republican party now from the inside. That movement has not begun in the Democratic party BUT I have recently been contacted by the campaign for a gentleman who is running for Congress as a Democrat, who also believes that we need a new, post-partisan paradigm that emphasizes many of the issues that we're emphasizing as Blue Republicans, and that Ron Paul emphasizes.

I may well endorse him "officially." There is every possibility that Dems who wish to stay inside the Democratic Party will wake up to the message of Ron Paul – especially when they see that so many people who espouse liberal values are being lost to the liberty movement – which is currently associated with the Republican Party.

Robert Chote, the head of the Office of Budget Responsibility for the British Tory regime, claims the "British economy may never quite recover from a severe Euro collapse."

According to a UK Telegraph article, "Britain's economy may suffer 'permanent' damage and 'never quite get back up' if the euro collapses in a chaotic way.

This, according to the "Government's chief economic forecaster."

So much for the idea that Britain's right-wingers are dead set against the EU or the euro.

Smell the fear? The elites use dominant social themes – fear-based promotions – to push for world government. This comment from Chote is right in line with that.

A global frenzy buzzes now like so many angry bumblebees. At any moment, a company started in a dormitory just eight years ago will sell promoted common shares to the investing public and become the hottest technology diva ever. Unusual animal movements have preceded extraordinary natural disasters—might they also mark onset of man-made financial mayhem? Hundreds of millions of us like using Facebook. At first blush the features and benefits seem a compelling bargain. But as far as investors in this offering are concerned, are valuation levels for Facebook's Class A common shares supported by realistic hope or by artful hype? – Washington Times

Dominant Social Theme: Now that Facebook is worth US$ 100 billion, where's the next hot deal?

Free-Market Analysis: Frankly, we've been surprised by the lack of articles doubting Facebook's US$ 100 billion valuation.

This article in the Washington Times, written yesterday, is about the closest we could come, recently, in the mainstream media.

We've been frank about our perception of what Facebook is – a creation in part of American Intel, which evidently and obviously has a stake in utilizing the data that Facebook "mines."

Global banks see market rally on Greek exit ... Major global banks are advising clients to prepare for a stock market rally and a resurgence of the euro if Greece is forced out of monetary union, betting that world authorities will flood the international system with liquidity. Bank of America said EU authorities will pull out the stops to keep Greece in the system as they weigh the full dangers of contagion. Should that fail, it expects a series of dramatic moves ... Mr Bloom said the ECB is playing a game of chicken by waiting until it has secured maximum compliance from EMU's wayward states before coming to the rescue. "Once again it is holding everybody over the edge of the abyss until they scream for mercy," he said. – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard/UK Telegraph

Dominant Social Theme: Oh, no. Greece is leaving!

Free-Market Analysis: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, with some of the best sources in the world, has buried his lead once again.

Just look at the excerpt from his latest article, above. The headline is that there will be a global rally. We figure this is a pretty good speculation.

He was told there would be, no doubt by fairly prominent people who want the word to get out.