Saturday--

I left the dehydrator running overnight because I had three trays of tomatoes in it and they still had a considerable ways to go before they were dry.  I was prepared to continue the operation if need be but the tomatoes were all nicely finished when I turned off the machine about 5am this morning.  Since we now have rain the dehydrator will have a nice day off.  See if the weather drys up tomorrow before collecting anything more from the garden.  I saw a nice bowlful of beans developing.  They should be ready by Monday or Tuesday.

This is a problem for customers of HSBC in the UK but is a cautionary tale for us on this side of the pond.  How much do you trust your bank?  And what happens when trust is broken in a system that runs on trust?

For a good while now I have seen stories about the "ghost cities" in China.  Now add "zombie factories" into the mix.  But the description of how some of those factories have been kept on life support (restructuring loans, requiring only interest repayment, and giving new loans that have little likelihood of being repaid) reminds me of what the "Troika" has been doing to Greece.

So, they have a banking problem in the UK and one in Australia as well.  Coincidence?   Probably but it doesn't do much to bolster confidence in the banking system.

I saw this earlier this morning and had only one question:  if people are pulling cash out of stocks and bonds, where are they putting it?

Well, the news media has been beating the dead horse of the Katrina 10th anniversary.  I have ignored most of it as much as possible.  Like so much else in this country these days it has the feeling of propaganda, of a Potemkin village affair.  Evidently I am not the only one--and I have never been to New Orleans so I can only suspect that it is a plastic replica of what was once authentic.