Call me crazy, but lately I have been pondering the sudden disappearance of Nouriel Roubini [1] from the media scene. You could probably add the likes of Meredith Whitney [2] and others to the list of media sensations who rose to fame as a result of successful predictions about the financial crisis and have now been displaced by a different set of pundits who are talking about subjects green shoots, TARP [3] repayment, and the coming upturn in jobs and housing.

While Roubini's media star may be setting, the man himself is not slowing down - nor is he backing away from his bearish leaning. Today Roubini is out with Latvia's Currency Crisis Is a Rerun of Argentina's [4] and earlier in the week, the issue was Green Shoots or Yellow Weeds? [5]

So as I watch the S&P 500 index move above 950, I am thinking about complacency and the possibility of a ‘rebound bubble' of sorts.

I checked with Google Trends [6] to see what has happened to interest in Roubini and I was not surprised at all to see a chart that resembled that of the VIX. In fact, when I combined the Roubini Google Trends results with the VIX in the graphic below, I was interested to see that interest in Roubini seemed to be a leading indicator of sorts with respect to volatility.

Of course volatility looks as if it may have a stake driven through its heart today, but I am very skeptical that the VIX will be able to drop much below the current 27 level for at least the remainder of the month.

Click to enlarge:

[7]

[graphic: VIXandMore]

Disclosure: Long VIX at time of writing.