SAR #8247

"To accept the truth of things is not to approve

that they are as they are."

Arturo Perez-Reverte 'The Painter of Battles'

Two Wrongs Make Two Wrongs: Somebody is floating a trial balloon suggesting that Frannie and Freddie get married and drown their kids, using the money they'll save to up the stock price long enough for F. Cat & Friends to unload.

Deliberation: You probably now know more about Sarah Palin than McCain did when he picked her. Not "selected", for that would imply a reasoned judgement. McCain decided a woman would get him Hillary's vote. Giuliani was willing to wear a dress, but it's not quite the same.

Off the High Board: Approvals for house mortgages in the UK fell 71% from a July 07, from 114,000 to 33,000.

Mattress: HSBC's private Swiss banking unit reports that many of the wealthiest people in the world have their money tied up in money; not bonds, not stocks, not commodities. Money. Me, I'm long Scotch, which fared better than cash in the Great One.

Capistrano: Bottom? Hell, no. Next year and the year after, $100 billion in Option ARMs will reset, driving payments up about 60% on average. In some areas the delinquency rates on these mortgages are already over 20% - and that's before fully amortizing payments must be made.

Inquiring Minds: John McCain's campaign manager explains why the GOP ads will be nastier than ever: "This election is not about issues... "

Best Case Scenario: A UN report has concluded that mountain ranges worldwide will lose their glaciers by 2100 if global warming continues at its projected rate. In that warming has been accelerating faster than predicted, this suggests that much of the population of India, southern China, and Indochina will be without reliable water supplies by mid-century.

US & Them: If you view Bush's economic undertakings as a failure, you should go read Jesse's Labor Day labor.

Trend Setter: California is broke, deadlocked over a budget that is %15 billion short of balancing, has about a month to go before it cannot write checks for payroll. Checks have already stopped going to heathcare clinics, nursing homes, and child care facilities, By the end of September $12 billion in payments will not have been made.

Nail... Rider: Once electricity is generated, it has to get to market - via an out-of-date and overworked power grid. No one makes any money building new distribution systems nor maintaining the old. The money is in gouging the customer. So the grid gets older and shoddier. Thank deregulation. None of the wind farms, solar arrays, nor dogs on treadmills addresses this problem. It will take two or three more blackouts to bring this problem into focus. The Democrats will be blamed.

Learner's Permit: The US has turned over security operations in Iraq's Anbar province to actual Iraqis. Of course, the US is keeping 25,000 US soldiers on hand (and probably at least that many mercenaries military contractors).

Porn O'Graph: Housing's second wave...