Monday, January 21, 2008

Of Note

* Fun fact--(U.S. Treasury Direct)
On 1/14/2000, the total public debt outstanding was $5,719,849,572,269.03.
On 1/17/2008, the total public debt outstanding was $9,187,584,466,089.71.

* There are more Republican disputes. Oh, goody. CQ Politics:

The winter meeting held by Republican National Committee (RNC) and concluded this weekend did not even seek to compete for attention with the presidential nominating events on Saturday in Nevada and South Carolina. But they did, in a low-profile manner, revive a debate over whether and how to fix a presidential nominating process that many participants and observers view as broken.

The GOP officials meeting in Washington, D.C., did not miss the fact that the Nevada caucuses and South Carolina primary were already the fifth and sixth Republican voting events in the 2008 campaign — by Jan. 19 — with their multicandidate field hurtling toward a historic traffic jam of 21 Republican nominating events scheduled for Feb. 5......

Are the Republicans blaming their system for their failure to get voter interest for their loser candidates?

* The NY Times is reporting that stocks are falling in Asia and Europe due to fears about the U.S. economy. NY Times:

Global stock markets plunged on Monday as fears spread that the turmoil in United States mortgage markets is spreading. Indexes in Europe fell as much as 7 percent after a huge selloff in Asia.....

What a mess!