Make that 40th.

Damn, has it really been that long?

Alas, interesting times have intervened and should the 10% chance of the worst case prevail, he may be hounded out of office just ahead of a Chamber of Commerce lynch mob.

C’est la geurre. Speaking of which, suppose the bearded followers of the Prophet (peace be upon him) liquidate their inventory of suicide bombers on the 20th anniversary of the Tet Offensive?

Can you imagine the feeding frenzy of the 24/7 media? Imagine Wolf Blitzer, stoned and hollow-eyed on NoDoze and in wrinkled Armani, orchestrating a slide show of lurid graphics and earnest experts in a firestorm of self-flagellation? FOX would incandesce. The blogsphere would fireball. And just eight months before the election.

Just 11 shopping days left until Tet……..

On the other side of the Universe, Rep. Rangel was obscured by a dense cloud of smug on the Charlie Rose show Friday as he allowed that there seemed to be much better cooperation between Congress and the White House as of late.

Indeed, strange bedfellows are created at the junction of the cusp where oil, war and worldwide financial panic intersect: The gestation of the perfect storm.

All we need is another Tet…..

For some understanding of the box in which we find ourselves and the way in which we got there, see this article at TomDispatch from Chalmers Johnson:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174884/chalmers_johnson_how_to_sink_america

Eisenhower’s unease at the rise of the Military-Industrial Complex was well founded.

When the nation’s economic diversity is hollowed out, when its industrial base is decimated through financial disincentives towards capital investment and the selfishness of the rich looks to outsourcing to increase their wealth and to put those unionists in their place, disaster for the majority of the citizens will inevitably follow. Couple this with the unimaginable sums spent on the military. And it’s a totally bi-partisan endeavor. Way to go.

Much of the Chinese economy is predicated on Western, say, American companies, wont their demise affect China?

In any case, from the Financial Times article:

If this had been a mere subprime crisis, it would now be over. But it is not, and nor will it be over soon. The reason is that several other pockets of the credit market are also vulnerable. Credit cards are one such segment, similar in size to the subprime market. Another is credit default swaps, relatively modern financial instruments that allow bondholders to insure against default. Those who such sell such protection receive a quarterly premium, based on a percentage of the amount insured.

The CDS market is worth about $45,000bn (€30,500bn, £23,000bn). This is not an easy figure to imagine. It is more than three times the annual gross domestic product of the US. Economically, credit default swaps are insurance. But legally, they are not, which is why this market is largely unregulated.

Technically, they are swaps: two parties swap payments streams – one pays a regular premium for protection, the other pays up in case of default. At a time of low insolvency rates, many investors used to consider the selling of protection as a fairly risk-free way of generating a steady stream of income. But as insolvency rates go up, so will be the payment obligations under the CDS contracts. If insolvencies reach a certain level, one would expect some protection sellers to default on their obligations.

A 45 Trillion (trillion) dollar market. Largely unregulated. “If insolvencies reach a certain level, one would expect some protection sellers to default on their obligations.” Right.

Way, way beyond subprime.

Awwwww…

Those poor Saudi princes they will probably have to cut back on re-golding their bidets.