French daily LE MONDE falls into the FAKE WOLFOWITZ MEMO trap.

Via Emile Servan-Schreiber of NewsFutures (who is now registered as a Midas Oracle post author), Le Monde (the most prestigious French daily):

Paul Wolfowitz wants to prevent the World Bank employees from betting on his resignation. (translation from Chris Masse)

ha! ha! ha!

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Le Monde put a link to the Wolfo event derivatives at InTrade-TradeSports.

Previous: FAKE WORLD BANK MEMO: Harvard professor of economics Kenneth Rogoff laughs in Paul Wolfowitz’s face. + INSIDER TRADING: World Bank employees speculating on the Paul Wolfowitz event derivatives at InTrade-TradeSports??

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As I explained in the two blog posts listed above, it was tricky because:

- The website is serious (ForeignPolicy.com);

- The author is serious (a Harvard professor of economics);

- The underlying is credible (if you’re not a legal expert, you’re tempted to think that, yes, indeed, World Bank employees are barred from trading their own event derivatives);

- There was no mention that it was filed as “humor”.

I took 10 good minutes to make up my mind on this, and thank God, I made the right decision and wrote that it was probably a “hoax”.

TAKEAWAY: Only blog on things you understand and/or master; otherwise, abstain, and give the microphone to the other expert.