Dilbert of July 6th: http://www.dilbert.com/

http://www.eurointelligence.com/article.581+M541fb1f87fe.0.html

Article from Eurointelligence:

"Steinbruck threatens German banks"

About the scampering in Germany with summaries and links to other articles.

and if you aren't sexy enough to flirt effectively – then what?

When I was in my 20's I didn't think I had been treated differently because I was a woman – until I was. Kellaway's informal survey of young women professionals is unconvincing.

It's this kind of thinking that contributed to the delusion that Caribou Barbie was a viable VP candidate.

Here again we see how fraudulent was the orignal TARP premise, endorsed at the time by the banks, that all they needed was liquidity to "get them lending again".

It's long been clear that the banks, fearing insolvency rather than laboring through illiquidity, don't want to lend at all.

Here's what I don't understand. The core premise of the Too Big To Fail ideology and the bailout onslaught which has followed from it is that the economy, in order to be restored to health, needs the vigorous credit-facilitating action of the banks.

But if the banks have abdicated, then why exactly do we need to loot the country to keep them from failing? ("Failing" – but if they're failing to lend, haven't they already failed according to the original premise?)

Why again can't all federal support be plowed into direct stimulus, and none into financial bailouts?

Why again do we need the banks at all?