SAR #8316

You better believe in the Christmas spirit.

You're going to need it.

Democracy? Emphasis on the mockery part. There's no transparency, no honesty, and damned little legality to most of the Treasury's shenanigans under the guise of saving the system. Reminds me of that village in Vietnam. We didn't nationalize the banks, the banks privatized the Treasury.

Confidence: Deutsche Bank displayed its confidence in the future of GM by downgrading it from sell to dump, with a price target of zero. With or without a bailout, GM has only a limited future.

Rabbit Hole: An effort is underway to forbid the media from reporting stories deemed to be "against the interests of national security," to include "police operations." No, not Bush - Parliament. But hold your breath, he's still the president.

Strike While the Iron is Cold: The UAE is awash in oil, the price of oil has dropped precipitously, yet the UAE is drilling more wells. The world has an enduring thirst for oil, and another spike will soon roccur. It's not raining; that's a good time to patch the roof.

Yellowcake: The IAEA has evidence that the documents the US produced back in 2004 that a formed the basis for sanctions against Iran, are fabrications. Imagine that.

Object Lesson: Spanish unemployment rates are expected to reach 20% soon. Non country - especially not Spain - can afford a social safety net for 20% of its citizens. No country with 20% of the population out of work and hungry is going to be stable. Watch and learn.

For Peat's Sake: To go along with methane bubbling up from the sea floor and out of melting permafrost, the billions of tons of carbon in the world's peat bogs will be released as the world warms. A few degrees of warming will release enough CO2 to dwarf even China's coal-fired plants - which will then become the second largest cause of global warming.

Jargon: These "White Tail" are not deer, they're aircraft that were ordered and built but not delivered because the financing fell through and there is no owner's emblem to put on the tail. Boeing and Airbus now have whole fleets of 'white tails.' Be the first on your block to get one.

Sinking Funds: Shipowners are walking away from tens of millions in deposits on new ships, claiming the future doesn't justify the expense. Estimates are that orders for 2,000 dry-bulk carriers could end up scuttled.

Left, Right Hands: Abu Dhabi and Dubai are spending tens of billions of their petro-dollars building for the future after oil, which they know cannot last forever. Oddly enough, they are both building cultural and tourist venues, along with the biggest airport in the world. Excuse me, but doesn't tourism to remote places like Abu Dhabi depend on air travel? And airports depend on airplanes, no? And airplanes use vast amounts of petroleum, so...

Crossed Fingers: If you look carefully at the press photos of Paulson announcing that the recipients of taxpayer largesse and the assets acquired under various rescue plans would be "transparent" and made public, you'll note his fingers are behind his back, crossed.

Lemonade: Fannie Mae, one of two US taxpayer owned and operated lemonade stands, lost $29 billion in the 3rd quarter and has $71 billion in "non-performing" assets to write off soon. Fannie says that the $100 billion already pledged by John Q's Treasury will not be enough.

Parshally Correct: Texas roughnecks, wildcatters and scam artists are descending on Parshall , ND in the belief the town is sitting on an oil jackpot. Perhaps, but the oil is tightly locked up in rock and probably not economically extractable.

Laws? What Laws? Uncharacteristically, the Washington Post is calling attention to the illegal administrative repeal of US law, giving banks a $140 billion tax break without bothering to ask the people's representatives. In the same vein, AIG has now extorted better terms and twice the money from the taxpayer. Take a number.

Rant O'Day: AIG not-so-easy over, by Yves Smith.