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Wall St. On The Tundra – (Vanity Fair): “Iceland’s de facto bankruptcy—its currency (the krona) is kaput, its debt is 850 percent of G.D.P., its people are hoarding food and cash and blowing up their new Range Rovers for the insurance—resulted from a stunning collective madness.”

Bank of Israel Halts Dollar-Purchase Program – (Jerusalem Post): “The Bank of Israel on Tuesday will stop its program of buying $100 million on a daily basis but reserve the right to intervene in the foreign-currency market, the bank announced Monday… Following the announcement, the dollar dropped 1%.”

A temp-agency is the 3rd largest US employer? – (Reuters) Ugh.

Update on FDIC’s financial health and latest failures – (Reuters) Rolfe Winkler gives the FDIC a health checkup. Good thing they have that Treasury dept black Amex.

42% of CA Mortgages Have Negative Equity – (Doctor Housing Bubble): Highlight is this chart.

us-real-estate

Bright spot: Below is a cool video about “Ultra Deep Field”, a project using the Hubble space telescope to see what’s going on in an apparently blank spot of sky. But the must-see is this tool someone created to explore UDF. click-and drag around, scroll to zoom. Every tiny speck of light in this one tiny slice of sky is a galaxy with billions of solar systems. This is Hitchhiker’s Galaxy material.