Summary: Oil prices fell sharply last week on fears of serious recession as well as signs that the U.S. is prepared to cut a deal with Iran. The media gave lots of coverage to the former and very little to the latter. After years of saber rattling, the Bush administration sent its third-ranking diplomat to Geneva to meet with the Iranian diplomat in charge of the nuclear program negotiations. It was also revealed that the U.S. is setting up an "interest section" in Teheran for the first time since 1979. That is an office that represents a country's interests when that country doesn't officially recognize the other.

What seems to be happening is that the old U.S. establishment has decided to cut its losses in Iraq by arranging a face-saving force reduction with help from Iran so that it can shift military resources to the war in Afghanistan. The war against the Taliban is going badly. Note also that the Taliban is an enemy of Iran.

The good news for the economy in all this is that we have a chance of having only a severe recession/depression instead of a complete collapse. If the United States can behave itself a bit more internationally and the banks and consumers ease up on some of the more obscene excesses, they might let Americans keep eating...

Summary: Except for the 3% rise in gold against the dollar, market movements weren't drastic last week. But that doesn't capture the fear in the markets and in the media that things are close to getting much worse. The collapse of "IndyMac", the near collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (such cute nicknames!) stoked that fear at the end of the past week.

It began on Thursday when the stocks of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plummeted. Fannie Mae stands for FNMA or the Federal National Mortgage Association and Freddie Mac stands for FHLMC or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. In a nutshell they guarantee mortgage debt. $5 trillion of it. Half of all the outstanding mortgage debt in the United States.

As long as most mortgage holders are paying their mortgages off, the system works fine and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac help free up lots more money for new mortgages, making house purchasing available and more affordable for people. But they are publicly traded companies. Their stock price in times like these, where it is not at all certain that people will be able to keep paying on their mortgages, can drop fast.

What happens if they crash? Why, the US government steps in and bails them out! But how can even the government guarantee $5 trillion dollars in bad debt?!

Prelude, 2008

There are cities you love ay the first sight. Venice comes to mind, Paris or St. Petersburg. And there are cities which you have never seen but you love them as a legend. For me it was New Orleans. I dreamed to live there since childhood. Through cold winters of Russia I dreamed of the Mississippi Delta, the Bayou, the Cajun accordions (I now have one) and of the jazz funerals. I dreamed about Mardi Gras and the French quarter. New Orleans, I loved it from afar and in the Y2003, I visited it on our 20-years' wedding anniversary journey. We came on Mardi Gras and followed all the crews. It was sublime. I'll never forget it.

©Harper's

And in the Y2005 I cried. I saw my beloved city killed. Among the crimes of this administration the murder of New Orleans was the most insidious, the worst of the worst, pure evil. Yes, the Iraq and Afghanistan abominations are beyond satanic but even the evil government takes care of its own. Bush and his cronies did not. Their disregard for the human life was so open and so evil that I was expecting the White House to be stormed. Nothing happened though except for a shameful media spin. And then I wrote the piece below. It was published as a Diary in September 2005. This piece is important to me not only because Bush and his cabal killed my dream. It is also important now more than ever. New Orleans, I believe was a template for the way to 'handle' all of us. And this template is exercised again and again. I believe if there was New Orleans intact by now the mad hatter Bush would not push for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. I believe that we all are now New-Orleanians and our dignity is being murdered. Please, read how it was done then, in the Y2005.

©Unknown

Nancy Pelosi has declared impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney, "off the table." And, after a moment's reflection, it is clear she is right - though perhaps not for the reasons she might publicly give. George and Dick are really only front men for big corporations and individuals made wealthy as a result of corporate greed. It would be great to indict and convict George and company for all their lawlessness in order to keep them from setting precedents for future Presidential power grabs, but that really isn't as important as undercutting the power of the people controlling them. Fewer than a dozen CEOs control the media. Markets from computers to groceries are dominated by mega-businesses. The power of these corporations allows them to squeeze employees, suppliers, and - ultimately - customers so that a half dozen people in executive management can go home with multimillions of dollars annually.

If we don't break the grip of these corporate leeches they will reduce our economy to the hacienda model that has made Central and South America suffer for centuries, with a very small percent of the population rich and powerful beyond any understanding or reason and everyone else a virtual slave.