With the Economic Patriot Act past the Senate – including hundreds of billions in pork barrel – sweeteners, it’s time to focus in a little on politics. I’ll lead off the round-up there, trying to keep it fair despite my obvious anti-McCain-Palin bias.

Then we’ll turn to the usual fare of credit crisis news and financial services reports. The notable report there comes from UBS, which surprised analysts with a nice quarterly profit – hopefully signs of better things to come. I can hope, can’t I.

Enjoy!

Politics
Vice presidential debate: A barrel of gaffes? – Politico
Women ex-governors divided on Palin – Politico
Latest Column on Obama’s Temperament – Swampland
An Open Letter to Sarah Palin – Pat Buchanan (I told you I was trying to be even-handed)
Bush Records Highest Disapproval Rate in History – Political Wire (McCain is getting sucked into the Bush vortex)

Credit Crisis
What should you study in a credit crunch? – Guardian (Not Economics like me, try psychology)
Q&A: The second U.S. bailout explained – Times Online
European summit on finance crisis – BBC News
“Open Letter to European Leaders on Europe’s Banking Crisis”- Mark Thoma (well worth looking at to sign if you’re an economist)
We Chat on Bloggingheads with Megan McArdle on the Credit Crisis – Yves Smith (looking good, Yves. Feeling good, Megan.)
The Irish solution: unlawful, beggar-thy-neighbour and short sighted, but apart from that OK – Willem Buiter, FT (Tell us what you really think)

Finance and Financial Services
UBS to cut jobs despite returning to profit – Times Online
European Central Bank Leaves Rate Unchanged – NY Times
MBIA sues Countrywide Financial – FT Alphaville (Another reason BofA was dumb to buy Countrywide)
National City leads regional-banking shares higher – Market Watch

Technophile’s Corner
Adobe Photoshop CS4 – PC Pro (Fabulous photo software, but it’ll cost ya)
Download Free Task Manager Extension 2.0 to Enhance Built-In Windows Task Manager – My Digital Life (This is a useful tool for your computer)