“I didn’t know you were Catholic”

This is some weird shit going down.

In the Roosevelt Room after the session, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.

“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, according to someone who observed the exchange. She went on: “It’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.”

Mr. Paulson sighed. “I know. I know.”

Capitalism is The Worst Enemy of Humanity (Mostly)

On Wednesday, Evo Morales addressed the United Nations General Assembly. He denounced capitalism in no uncertain terms:

"What we are talking about is the fight between rich and poor, between socialism and capitalism," Bolivian President Evo Morales said late in the day. "This historic fight is being repeated now. There is an uprising against an economic model, a capitalistic system that is the worst enemy of humanity."

Meanwhile, perhaps his closest ally in South America (no, not Zapatero!), Hugo Chavez, "signed a series of energy co-operation deals with China." Chavez explained humbly, "While the world enters an energy crisis, we are investing." His next stop is Russia, with whom he "has signed arms contracts [...] worth more than $4bn."

Much Clearer

Sasha Frere-Jones explains the credit crisis:

when I arrived at the bank this morning, I discovered that my account had been “compromised.” Apparently, someone at the bank who never had any business touching my money in the first place lent it to someone with no money of their own who promised to give my bank even more money that nobody ever really had. This process, surprisingly, made everyone involved nervous, so they closed down the banks—and “firms,” which are sort of like your company, I think?—and went out for Cinnabons, which I have to pay for. Nobody knows where my money is.

This also might be the explanation for something else, but it's all equally confusing, so why not just go with it?

just can't win

Some of the factories around Beijing that the Chinese government shut down in order to reduce pollution (an effort that seems to have fallen significantly short of achieving its goal, judging by the murky air seen during the cycling events) were producing chemicals used to produce drugs in India. According to the BBC, this has caused all sorts of problems:

[The shutdown of the factories] has led to a shortage of raw materials, which has pushed up prices everywhere.

"It's not that all the materials used to come from China," he says.

"But because China has stopped, there's pressure on materials coming from Taiwan, Korea, Europe. And everyone's taking a little bit advantage and jacking up their prices."

And if things go on like this, well, don't get sick in India:

J S Shinde, head of the Maharashtra State Chemists & Druggists Association, thinks that manufacturers will simply stop making the drugs that are not profitable and that a shortage of medicines could well be on the cards.

"If the prices of the raw materials for controlled drugs rises any further, there's a chance that the production of such drugs will simply stop," he says.

"I think it's highly likely that after September there'll be shortages of those drugs in India."