First up, a cool video from the Military Channel, comparing Mark46/Mark 48 machine guns.

(w00t!)

Next is a piece from Christopher Hitchens, describing the argument from the Left — it’s apples and oranges –

Iraq: Worth the Price

Think how many candy-canes and vacations I could have if it were not for the space program, or the cost of carrier-groups or special forces or — I don’t know — Black Hawk helicopters. (If you think I am being unkind or frivolous, see if you can detect the thread of reasoning that connects Iraq expenditures with the crisis in the mortgage system.) There are days when I think that the money raised by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama might have been better spent on the alleviation of poverty, but I can still tell an apple from an orange and am not hopelessly stuck on the zero-sum fixation. Once again, the economic “experts” turn out to know the price of some things but not the value of anything.

Time to start moving dirt…. the Toyota deal is bringing the beginnings of a boom in north Mississippi …

Auto parts maker Vuteq USA plans to build a $31 million plant in New Albany to supply molded plastic pieces and other components for Toyota’s assembly plant in Blue Springs.Vuteq, a Japanese company with seven facilities in North America, will hire 130 people to work at the New Albany plant and up to 500 to prepare parts kits at the Toyota plant.

Vuteq’s building will be the first in the Martintown Industrial Park, open land Union County bought with Toyota suppliers in mind.

Primary day in the Magnolia State … Beagle Scout who lives down on the coast in MS 1st district, is calling for voters to cross over and vote for Hillary. I live in the 3rd, and I won’t be crossing over. We’ve got a pretty good selection of hopefuls vying for the Pickering seat. The Club for Growth jumped in and endorsed Charlie Ross, to which I say, “forget Charlie Ross.” I’m pulling for David Landrum. So is Mrs. Nuke. Sure hope he makes the runoff.

U.S. House, 3rd District. For the Democratic nomination, Randall Eads of Starkville will meet Joel Gill of Pickens. On the Republican side, voters will choose between Gregg Harper of Pearl, Charlie Ross of Brandon, David Landrum of Madison County, John Rounsaville of Madison, Bill Marcy of Meridian, Gregory Hatcher of Meridian and the Rev. James Broadwater of Flowood.

So what’s going on in your neck of the woods?

From NRO:

Spitzer Indicted [Stephen Spruiell]

No question mark. Greta Van Susteren says she’s holding a copy.

 

(Somewhere Hank Greenberg is laughing his azz off.)

Over the past few weeks, I’ve offered up several short blurbs about the unraveling of the financial markets. To my surprise, it is a subject which continues to get only cursory media attention.

Were it not for the coverage in the foreign press, a person might be persuaded that all is well, that this is just a temporary slowdown which will be over and forgotten soon enough. I wish it were true.

“The fourth quarter [’07] may be the worst earnings period for the financial industry since the Great Depression.” So said JPost in mid January. As the 10Ks roll in, the good news may be that it’s not quite that bad. The bad news, however, may be that the worst is yet to come. The fact is, nobody really knows how much of a hit the industry is going to take — primarily because of the uncertainty of putting an accurate valuation [heck, at this point, a ball-park valuation would be nice] on a particular type of security, a derivative known as a collateralized debt obligation, or CDO.

The unraveling is not limited to US banks and insurance companies. The Telegraph is reporting that EU banks are staring down the barrel of an additional $68 bilion in write-offs, as yet another layer of the onion is peeled away.

Our major financial institutions are in trouble. Our political institutions are both unprepared and unwilling to lead.

Most of us will feel the bite in our 401(k)’s. We’re still a month away from the mailing of the 2008 1st quarter account statements, which will cause many folks to pay attention to this for the first time. Most of the major indices are down double digits YTD, the Benchmark S&P 500 down about 12%. The additive effect of the poor results for 4th Q ‘07 will be a combined decrease of over 20% from the market high, and maybe more by the end of this quarter.

Six years ago, after taking it on the chin following the Tech Bust, I rebalanced my portfolio to a “moderate” profile, about 60-40 stocks to bonds. I’ve maintained that profile, even though the temptation was to chase after the returns during the Bush bull market. Now, the temptation is to move to sidelines and wait it out. I think, though, I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing. I’m trying to practice what I preach: fend for myself, prepare, study, decide, adjust, adapt, and overcome.

There is more to come. The unraveling continues.

Update: See also, “Banks face systematic margin call”

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