Now that Russia has finally gotten belligerent after many a provocation, one has to ask whether the U.S. NATO expansion plans have been wise. Basically, the U.S. has tried to offer every Eastern Bloc country it could safe harbor under NATO auspices.

From Russia’s point of view this has all been done in order to strip away Russia’s traditional sphere of influence and bring these countries under U.S. hegemonic control. One reason for the souring of US-Russian diplomatic relations has been Putin’s anger at this power grab. Now, Russia is fighting back and we can see that the dangerous NATO expansion may be near an end.

National City is one of the regionals under the greatest pressure and scrutiny. This Friday afternoon announcement has to make deposit- and shareholders alike very nervous.
National City Corp., Ohio’s largest bank, said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission started an informal probe into the company’s lending and the sale of its subprime [...]

This is one of those things that make you go hmm…. But, hey, this is what people really think.

The housing downturn has been under way for a while now, so it’s hard to believe that many homeowners could still think their homes are appreciating these days.
Yet a recent survey from Zillow.com [...]

The Escalade Hybrid is here and I want one. It’s almost as good as the Prius. It’s like conservation without the sacrifice. (Do you sense the sarcasm?)

I am sufficiently concerned about John McCain and his foreign policy creds to write a blurb about his anti-Russia rhetoric and its likely effect now that Russia is on a rampage in Georgia.

My colleague Lisa Lerer, traveling with McCain, sends over his tough comments on the escalation in Georgia:
In a statement at the Des [...]

Haven’t we been told time and again that much of the oil price rise was due to to external event risk like political instability and war? Well we’ve got this is spades and oil is still falling.
Today, Russia has launched a war against its neighboring country Georgia, who’s ex-President Eduard Shevardnadze was once [...]

In an environment where the U.S. Dollar is rising and everything is falling, one needs to pay attention to the fine details. For me, its in the UK and its 5% base interest rate.
Oil is now below $117 a barrel, so it stands to reason that inflation hawks around the world can get in the [...]

About five years ago, Daniel Kahnemann won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on Behavioral Economics. This was a breakthrough because the financial markets and the economics profession had been dominated by the “efficient market,” laissez-faire, no-regulation crowd for some time.
His theories go a long way toward explaining why the credit [...]

Top BillingSolutions may make credit crunch worse – BBC News (a good read for understanding why tinkering makes it worse)
EarningsFannie Mae Posts Fourth Straight Loss, Cuts Dividend – Bloomberg (Following FreddieMac, wasn’t it obvious major losses were coming. $3.2 billion is a large figure, though. Fannie pays a dividend?)Royal Bank of Scotland [...]

When we have a major economic dislocation, there is always some aspect of criminal behavior involved. As a result, the governmental authorities look for specific companies and individuals to use as scapegoats for all of the ills of the economy. After the tech bubble crashed in 2000, Enron and Ken Lay quickly became [...]