SAR #8274

I am not sure what's going to happen, but it might be

a good idea to send your Christmas cards early this year.

Scores: Redskins 24, Dallas 23. Taxpayers 228, Paulson 205. European Leagues are in disarray.

Confidence Game: The Federal Reserve is pumping another $650 billion into the toilet in an attempt to stop the leak. Today's assignment: Explicate the difference between 'liquidity' and 'solvency'.

The Real Crisis: Following last week's announcement that Russian scientists had found "vast quantities of methane being released by the melting permafrost from the seabed off Siberia", a British group has found hundreds more methane plumes in the Arctic, raising fears that the methane releases may trigger a significant quickening of global warming. If the methane release is at all large, previous projections of doom are optimistic.

Mysteries of High Finance: The FDIC says Wachovia didn't fail and that the FDIC suffered no cost. They don't mention that the FDIC is on the hook for Citi's losses in excess of $42 billion. And why is Citigroup giving FCIC $12 billion in preferred stock and warrants if no FDIC money was involved?

Today's Lesson: Paulson, Bernanke, Pelosi, and the entire on-air staff of CNBC tell us that we are doomed because credit will be harder to get and it will be more difficult for Americans to get further in debt. They say this is a bad thing.

Ounce of Prevention: Congress is working on a bill to prevent diverting water from the Great Lakes basin to any place outside the region. A preventive move at the dawn of the age of Water Wars.

Detailing: The US auto industry got $25 billion from the Congress as a "low coast loan". Some of the money may, accidentally, be spent on battery research. Or maybe not. Some of the money may one day be paid back. Or not.

Defining "is": Bush again asserts "the taxpayer funds we invest will be paid back." True, depending on the meaning of "invest" and the meaning of "paid back".

Egress: Many hedge funds are preparing for a growing onslaught of investors wanting out, with many braced for desertions by nearly half their customers.

Full Faith and Credit: It now costs less to buy insurance on McDonad's commercial paper than it does to insure a 10 year US Treasury note.

Losses: A group of clever optimists bet a lot of other people's money on sure things that did not win. They did not finish in the money at all. They thought their Uncle would help them cover their markers, but were wrong. Now it looks like they may get their kneecaps rearranged. A learning process.