720P: Kerry Grace, Wall Street Journal, with Simon Constable, DowJones, re the delayed fuses of rotten mortgages, theft, brown lawns, ghost towns, wrecked families, accelerated despair, in the U.S. housing market that looks to become black humor in the new year. "My house is worth half what I bought it for!" "You still have a house?" Home Prices Slide; Confidence Hits Low
735P: Professional Roundtable Harry Siegel, Politico.com , with Diana West, author, Jim McTague, Barron's, re the political prospects for Congressional catastrophe in the new year with a majority party in the White House; re the Blago appointment of the combative and clever Roland Burris ("...neither a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit."), re the Paterson/Kennedy/Bloomberg/Cumo quartet in NY; re the 111th Congress.
750P: Continued re the Franken/Coleman imbroglio, re the best and worst political events of the year.
805P: Ethan Perlson, Benjamin Sarlin, DailyBeast.com, re the Gaza War hits Facebook, re Gaza and the Hamas war on the web, at Facebook, Twitter and the new tools of the information age, re the viral bashing of Israel, re the viral boosting of Hamas propaganda and the usual storybook fiction of Palestinian victimology.
820P: Bob Zimmerman, author, re the 2008<http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=315533893763712>">second least active sun since records were kept and what a lack of sunspots means; re Space X; re NASA vs the Obama Team; re the space race in 2009, re best and worst space moves of the year.
835: Financial Professionals, with John Tamny, RealClearMarkets.com, Simon Constable, Dow Jones, Aaron Task, Yahoo Finance, the Why 2009 Will Be Worse Than 2008, Worldwide, a Bad Year Only Got Worse Paulson says crisis sown by imbalance
850P: Continued, Unemployment Insurance: A Safety Net in Need of Repair - Another Boneheaded Move Ahead from The Fed Obama, Deflation & Recovery Mutual funds suffer $320bn outflow
905P: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents Major Jewish Organizations, from Jerusalem, re the Gaza crisis and the Hamas War on Israel; re the limitations of the IDF operations, re the Egyptian cooperation with Israel, re what does Cairo want?
920P: Charles Fourelle, Wall Street Journal, re Iceland collapses, re the Iceland market was down 95 percent in 2008, re the search for cash and credit, re the rebuilding of the republic and public anger, re "Did Iceland Die For Our Sins?" Iceland's Fall: The Isle That Rattled the World Iceland is an extreme casualty of an era in which it was easy to borrow money. The tiny isle became so leveraged that its collapse has rattled the world
935P: Harold Holzer, author, "Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861." Mr. Lincoln's transition was four months long (six weeks longer than Mr. Obama's), and still holds the record for pontificating, bribe-seeking, influence-peddling, chest-thunping and double-crossing. The Blago affair is a tawdry miniature of the gleeful corruption tales of Keystone boss Simon Cameron (right) and the Pennsylvania mob. Eventually Mr. Lincoln was obliged to hand the giant prize of the War Department to Mr. Cameron, who so misbehaved that he was shipped to the Russian ambassadorship in less than a year.
955P: Exeunt re Gaza update, re the Hamas rocket arsenal and the threat on Dimona and Tel Aviv. If not for bad news, no news at all.
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705P PT: Jeff McCracken, Wall Street Journal, re the day the music and the orchestra died when Lehman Brothers failed, the weekend of September 13-14; re The Weekend That Wall Street Died The financial crisis that led to Lehman's collapse and sent Merrill scrambling marked a shift on Wall Street. Instead of CEOs banding together, it was every man for himself.
720P: Tom Polansek, Wall Street Journal, Black Sea Region Wheat Exports Surge, reThe Black Sea region has muscled its way into the exclusive club of the world's top wheat exporters and is expected to continue stealing business from the U.S.
735P: Professional Roundtable with Larry Johnson, No Quarter and State (ret), Ann Marlowe, Forbes.com, Kerry Patton, Human Terrain Program, re the Gaza crisis and the IDF armor offensve to secure the rocket sites and decapitate Hamas; re the Obama administration inherits Gaza and Afghanistan (after the handover of the Green Zone), re the Centcom surge in Afghanistan. Pakistan Closes NATO Supply Route Pakistan closed a main road used to ferry supplies to U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan after launching a fresh offensive against militants in the area. NATO says it is considering alternative routes.
750P: Continued re Afghanistan and Taliban, and the failed state and rogue state of Pakistan: Taliban Kill 20 Afghan Police
805P: Professional roundtable with Jodi Schneider, CQ, Melik Kaylan, Forbes.com, Craig Unger, re the best and worst political events of the late and melodramatically perfect year, re the 111th Congress promising the sitcoms of Roland Burris, Caroline Kennedy, Al Franken/Norm Coleman, and that's before the opening gavel.
820P: Continued re the stimulus package meets Mitch McConnell, re the Obama team meets the Senate rules.
835P: Stephen Cohen, NYU, re Russia in winter, re Putin and Medvedev and the challenge of the oil plunge, re the nat gas cut-off to Ukraine, re the Russian ambitions in the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
850P: Continued Moscow and Kiev seek allies in gas dispute EU adopts low profile during showdown.
905P: Robert Lee Hotz, Warming Earth Blows Hot, Cold and Chaotic Three independent research groups have concluded that 2008 was a comparatively cool year on Earth -- a feverish chill on our warming world; re climate change and the unpredictability of North Temperate Zone agriculture.
920P: Mary Kissel, Asia Wall Street Journal, from Hong Kong, re the decline and fall of the Asia Tigers: Singapore down 2%, South Korea exports down 17%, China contraction unplotted but turmoil certain with the internet and the fragmenting of regions.
935P: Tom Donlon, Barron's author, "A World of Wealth: How Capitalism Turns Profits into Progress, re the J.M. Keynes warning that every madman dictator (or publicity swollen politician) bases theory on a dead economist and his or her obsolete theories, re the inevitability of monetarists (central bankers) printing money to fight slow down and thus guareteing inflation to be followed by another recession; re the housing bubble and the current global depression, or credit freeze, or unnamed dread; re what the recovery will look like and what governments are doing to stop it.
935P: Exeunt Lou Ann Hammond, carlist.com re "Is this the end of the car dealership?"