During these times of rampaging predatory capitalism, one is tempted to dwell on the details; the endless new scams and instruments to generate profits from debt, and always new creations:

• Blythe Masters (who gave us the credit default swap) hard at work on carbon derivatives,
• JP Morgan Chase’s q-Forwards,
• Goldman Sachs and their collateralized risk obligations (CRO) and convoluted public-private partnership configurations,
• Morgan Stanley and their Pinnacle Notes,
• Citigroup’s crisis derivatives,
• and ELX Futures’ (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley et al.) exchange of futures for futures (EFF) gambit,

but sometimes examining the fundamentals is recommended.

A long time ago, Henry George, the great political economics thinker, came to the conclusion that the concentrated land ownership – or the monopoly of land – was the chief cause of poverty.

The free-thinking economist, J.W. Smith and his elegant economic democracy philosophy elaborated this to the monopolization of land, capital and knowledge. While in logical agreement with Dr. Smith, the second two categories are always dependent upon the primary monopoly of land.

Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations so very conveniently avoided a confrontation with the land owner hegemony of his day; instead writing to the status quo and avoiding the obvious concentration in land ownership.

Spillcam continues the SAW horror show. Below you can see remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) sawing away at the pipe in the start of the next attempt to stop the leak, known as a LMRP, or Lower Marine Riser Package.

Discussion of the economic crisis in Europe has been largely confined to Greece and how it effects the Euro. All that changed this week.
It all started with the Spanish banks at the start of the week.

CajaMurcia, Caja Granada, Sa Nostra, and Caixa are joining together in a SIP (System of Integrated Protection), which will combine bank reserves and result in a firm worth €100 billion, according to Cotizalia.
This comes after yesterday's announcement that four banks, Cajastur, Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, Caja Extremadura, and Caja Cantabria were merging under a similar agreement.
All of this started with the weekend's €530 million bailout of CajaSur, and is sure to continue as Spain tries to sure up its banking sector under IMF pressure.

Sudden mergers of major banks, following a major bank bailout, is very suspicious. The markets noticed, and two days later the Spain's central bank was forced to act.