Perhaps such willful ignorance from Bear helps explain why three of their hedge funds just blew up. Apparently they don’t even read the news.

• “Housing slump eroding profits, from railroads to chemical companies“
• An Australian bank warned its funds had lost 25% of their value even though they have no direct subprime exposure
• US carmaker sales plunge, housing market partly blamed

Bear Stearns sounds like the Bush Administration. Everything is fine because we say it is, and reality shall not be permitted to intrude.

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New Statesman says fascism is spreading in Russia under Putin, as witness his personality cult youth brigade. “The comparison with Hitler Youth is beginning to be made more and more often.”

Chess master and dissident Garry Kasparov says to genuinely understand Putin, one simply needs to watch Mario Puzo’s movies. “The web of betrayals, the secrecy, the blurred lines between what is business, what is government, and what is criminal — it’s all there in Mr. Puzo’s books.”

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Kidnapping victims in Atlanta were thrown in the trunk of a car. One texted for help, and that led rescuers to them.

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