Links 7/14/08

Forests to fall for food and fuel BBC

As 300 fires rage, California to get foreign help PhysOrg

Decisions Shut Door on Bush Clean-Air Steps New York Times. Eeek.

Bush Signs Spy Bill, ACLU Sues Wired

This recession could easily tip into a depression William Rees-Mogg Times Online (hat tip reader Saboor). FYI, color rather than analysis.

Gross Likes Dollar More Than Euro for 1st Time on EU Bloomberg

Government as the Big Lender New York Times. Key sentence:

In short, in a nation that holds itself up as a citadel of free enterprise, the government has transformed from a reliable guarantor into effectively the only lender for millions of Americans engaged in the largest transactions of their lives

The Coming Bank Failures Calculated Risk. A nice wrap of recent stories plus some historical data. One additional consideration: comparisons between bank failures in the past and now are misleading. The securities markets are far more important, in terms of credit intermediation, than in the past, when banks were the dominant players.

Fannie, Freddie and You Paul Krugman, New York Times. Krugman says there is no reason to worry.

Antidote du jour:

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