A little while ago I talked about how the weather can lower your retail sales, but never raise them. That's retail; in other industries, different scapegoats are required. Here are a few. If a server or website goes down, the first thought is never in-house incompetence or poor preparation; it's bound to be hackers or viruses. And music, movie and games manufacturers don't lose money because they've put out an unpopular product; it's piracy and illegal downloads that are to blame. Airlines weren't in serious trouble as far back as the late Nineties; their woes started with 911. (Likewise, Coalition soldiers don't get attacked by Iraqis; it's Al Qaeda who do the damage.) Banks didn't make crazy high-risk bets this decade; they were caught out by an unforeseen credit crunch. Western oil companies may make more money than any previous human endeavour but the fault lies with OPEC. Which is also why the American auto industry is dying; not because they make engineering dinosaurs that would be wasteful even if this were still the Sixties. Trains are delayed by late-running predecessors; they are never the original cause. Any more?