Summary: A comment on last week's SOTT Economic Commentary pointed out that four more U.S. banks had failed since the IndyMac run. I missed that news. Events get so strange and alarming that they become the new normal. Ho-hum another bank failure. Apparently I wasn't the only one because the mainstream media has been keeping this as quiet as possible.

And then, sure enough, on Friday night, the FDIC announced another bank failure.

While all the events in the banking crisis and the next Great Depression unfold, multinational corporations have quietly taken over core government functions in the United States, most alarmingly in the areas of war and intelligence. This may be one of the most important trends of the new century and probably has more ramifications than we can imagine - and we are probably past the point of no return...

Summary: Gold and oil were down sharply last week. Over the last two weeks, oil fell 17.5% on lower probability of war in Iran and growing evidence of a serious global economic downturn. It may be that the commodities bubble will be short-lived and that we are shifting back to risk of deflation due to collapse in demand.

Bad news in the U.S. housing sector continued to pile up. Foreclosures have doubled from a year ago and existing housing sales hit a ten-year low. The result is a lot of personal pain and shattered lives. In the Boston area last week a woman committed suicide before her house was going to be repossessed.

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In the US the 'political season' occurs every four years and lasts four years. In four years, many words are said and inversely fewer mean anything. Do the math. The campaigns are but a sop to public delusions that the US is a 'Democracy'.

The US was the creation of Northern commercial interests and remains so today. For those who wield power, the campaigns are a light diversion in which mock debates are held about things that don't matter. When the dust has settled, the power brokers still broker power, the slaves are still lashed to the wheel. Every four years you are thrown a bone to gnaw on until another bone is thrown you four years hence!

Last week, in the posting in which I asked the NSB community for aid (see "The Wind Up, and Here's the Pitch"), I closed by saying,

Here is the second such article: a piece that explores the psychology of different "moral structures" that tend to correspond with our political and cultural divides. "Moral Endo-skeletons and Exo-skeletons" appeared here first more than two years ago. It was also published subsequently in the journal, THE HUMANIST.