In Denial

From a story somewhere: WASHINGTON – “The two most influential women in President George W. Bush's White House — first lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — are strongly defending the president's legacy against critics who are calling his administration one of the worst in history. "I know it's not, and so I don't really feel like I need to respond to people that view it that way," Mrs. Bush said in an interview that aired Sunday. "I think history will judge and we'll see later." Rice took a similar view in a separate interview, saying that claims that the Bush administration has been one of the worst ever are "ridiculous." Let’s be real, please. He has dug us a hole so deep that it will be impossible to climb out of it. That is not ridiculous. Please wake up from your slumber.

Europe and Finance

As I was saying, the EU has initiated a plan, by way of French President Sarkozy, to revamp the current world financial setup - whatever that is. The idea of a universal currency and a worldwide cashless system might be proposed. The idea will be resisted - for now. What the credit crisis brought out into the open is a serious credibility problem regarding the future strength of the U.S. economy. Japan, China, India, Russia, and all of Latin America will benefit greatly from this.

"On Friday, Sarkozy repeated his call to overhaul the global financial system so that it can be better supervised in the wake of the crisis.
"Together we need to rebuild a capitalism that is more respectful to man, more respectful to the planet, more respectful to future generations and be finished with a capitalism obsessed by the frantic search for short-term profit," Sarkozy said
Sarkozy has floated the idea of reforming rating agencies and even exploring the future of currency systems.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who engineered a British bank bailout that inspired U.S. and European rescues, is proposing radical changes to the global capitalist system, including a cross-border mechanism to monitor the world's 30 biggest financial institutions. "