The European Interbank Covered Bond Council has halted trading until at least Monday, and possibly until the new year, citing instability, widening spreads, and illiquidity. “Covered bonds are debt securities backed by cashflows from mortgages or public sector loans” but you probably already figured that out. This would seem to be a serious sign that the wheels are coming off.

Today’s 211 point drop in the Dow confirmed a Dow Theory sell signal, this being an indicator with a solid long-term track record. Since it’s a well-known indicator, it can be self-fulfilling, as investors may sell based upon it and traders will sell or short because they think others will sell.

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Way more people than normal need emergency food this year, and Detroit charities are running low on food and money. Scary.

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Kudos to the Hartford Courant for their three-part investigation of the hideously substandard care at Haven Healthcare. The state just suspended their admissions and is determining how many of the homes will be put into receivership. The CEO, it appears, took money from the chain to start a Nashville record label, signing Travis Tritt - who says he never would have signed had he known about this.

When the paper of record in a small state does a front page investigation, everyone pays attention. I’m guessing the CEO is in for a bumpy several years of trials, investigations, bankruptcy, and maybe prison. How bad was the care?

a sore on a resident’s heel went untreated for so long that his leg had to be amputated.

We need affordable, quality health care for all, not obscenities like Haven Healthcare.

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Students at a Baltimore college erected a makeshift border fence between dorms and classrooms, and demanded that other students to provide a passport. If they couldn’t, they were told they couldn’t cross.

In a refreshing change, campus security, who are mainly people of color, allowed the wall to stand and supported the action.

Students who got annoyed by the “border check” were told, hey, then imagine what it’s like for Latin American immigrants who must cross the border to find jobs to feed their families.

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Patrick Moore left Greenpeace in the 80’s over “ideological differences” and now co-chairs a pro-nuclear power coalition.

The people who were most concerned about climate change were most opposed to nuclear power. Greenpeace is against fossil fuel, nuclear and hydroelectric power. Those three technologies produce over 99 percent of world energy. What kind of a path to a sustainable future is that?

I *like* electricity. It provides power for refrigerated food, lights, hospital operating rooms, the Internet, cell phones, etc. and without our lives would be vastly more difficult and primitive. So, in an era of global warming and peak oil, nuclear power seems a real good way to keep the lights on.

The US already gets 20% of its power from nuclear energy. Why not make that 50%? We absolutely also need to continue to cut usage and develop alternative, clean power sources. Like I’ve been saying for a while, we need to do everything, and do it now.

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