Out for Justice

Confusion that never stops
The closing walls and the ticking clocks
Gonna come back and take you home
I could not stop, that you now know
--Coldplay

What is law? According to Frederic Bastiat, law is common force organized to protect the liberty of individuals and their right to own property. The law is justice, pure and simple. Penned more than 150 years ago as socialism escalated in France, Bastiat's The Law is one of the finest essays on the relationship between liberty and politics that I've read.

Vice Grip

Seems so long I've been waiting
Still don't know what for
There's no point escaping
I don't worry anymore
--Phil Collins

Allota terms bubblin' up from the market lexicon. CDOs, mark-to-model (# 3 here), subprime--many of them emanating from probs at the mighty Bear (1 & 2 here). Of course, Bear Stearns is just the tip of the iceberg. If this ocean of mismarked, illiquid derivatives comes for sale, we'll see fireworks that'll put pending July 4th exhibits to shame.