I first heard of the Octopus — a power elite conspiracy — from parapolitical researcher Kenn Thomas of Steamshovel Press who investigated and wrote about Danny Casolaro’s death and the proprietary software PROMIS (see The Octopus). Now, the shadowy cabal — rumoured to have begun with stolen Japanese gold from World War II — has re-emerged in Guy Lawson‘s new book Octopus about the fall of the hedge fund Bayou Group; its founder Samuel Israel III who had US$117 million in debts; and the high-yield debt or junk bond market (see The Predator’s Ball). Israel becomes caught up in the ‘medial’ conspiracy netherworld in pursuit of financiers to revive his hedge fund. A New York Times review and Businessweek excerpt look promising. Evidently, Israel was unfamiliar with Rumors in Financial Markets.