A Very Important Question

How do the Somali pirates get paid? The BBC provides the exact details.

Waiting for Condemnation

Tom Friedman has the perfect evergreen column today. He can run this column every month or every quarter. The only facts on the ground that change are the body counts and the identities of the death cult killers. Everything else remains exactly the same.

When The Bottom Falls Out

It looks something like this. And that's with every imaginable incentive offered.

They Just Didn't Shoot Back

Via Kausfiles, a disturbing first person account of the massacre in Mumbai.

But what angered Mr D'Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. "There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."

You can read the full story here.

It matters because India matters, a lot. Christopher Hitchens explains why.

More Bearish Than Ever

Meredith Whitney explains why she thinks things will get worse before they get better and what might be done to ease the pain. Ms. Whitney's forecasting has been both honest and accurate, two words rarely associated with the modern financial services industry.

Stand By You.


The killers who struck this week are brutal and violent, but terror will not have the final word. People of India are resilient. People of India are strong. They have built a vibrant, multiethnic democracy that can withstand this trial. Their financial capital of Mumbai will continue to be the center of commerce and prosperity.

The leaders of India can know that nations around the world support them in the face of this assault on human dignity. And as the people of the world's largest democracy recover from these attacks, they can count on the world's oldest democracy to stand by their side.

-- President Bush, speaking about Mumbai

It's Not Just A River in Egypt.

Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin argues that Citibank's near collapse (saved only by a massive bailout from the taxpayers of the United States) was, basically, an act of God that no one could have foreseen or forestalled. He pronounces himself therefore blameless and further maintains that his compensation ($115 million since 1999, not counting stock options!) was appropriate. 

If Mr. Rubin wants to rescue what remains of his reputation, he's going to have to dig a little deeper than that. 

 

Relative Cost

When the numbers add up to unimaginable sums, it helps to view them graphically.  This graphic illustration (via Kedrosky, again!) indicates that the Bailout of 2008 is the most expensive government program in the history of mankind.  More or less.

Obama's Team

The retention of Defense Secretary Robert Gates is but the latest in a series of superb personnel decisions made by President-elect Obama.

When Mr. Obama was asked a year ago (by Marc Andreesson) how we could judge his executive abilities, he said: "watch how I run my campaign." He might have added "watch who I surround myself with." He's surrounded himself with some very impressive people.

As for the One Big Mistake, well, hope springs eternal that the Clintons will not vet.

Treasury Fails

Via Kedrosky, the question arises: what happens if the bail-out engine over-heats? It's happening now.