What Caught My Eye Today

Economy - Elation in the financial markets over the $700 billion bank bailout plan evaporated as the Dow Jones industrials lost 372 points, wiping out the gains the index made last Friday after administration officials and congressional leaders promised swift action to get bad debt off the books of banks and end the financial crisis. The sharp drop was reminiscent of last week's wild trading, which included two days of 400-plus-point drops for the Dow and two days of 300-plus-point increases. Can you say roller coaster? Worries that the rescue package would cost too much, drive up inflation, swell the already-bloated deficit and hurt the ailing economy also led global investors to flee the U.S. dollar. Imagine that. Honestly, what's got everyone so freaked out, we're only talking about $700 billion. That's, like what, the Gross Domestic Product of... all but 16 countries (click here)? Holy crap. Oil prices briefly spiked more than $25 a barrel before falling back to settle at $120.92, up $16.37, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That shattered the previous record for a one-day jump in crude oil, $10.75. Shattered seems like a bit of an understatement, wouldn't you say?

Russia - A Russian navy squadron set off for Venezuela in a deployment of Russian military power to the Western Hemisphere unprecedented since the Cold War. The Kremlin recently has moved to intensify contacts with Venezuela, Cuba and other Latin American nations amid increasingly strained relations with Washington after last month's war between Russia and Georgia. The intensifying contacts with Venezuela appear to be a response to the U.S. dispatch of warships to deliver aid to Georgia which angered the Kremlin. Back in kindergarten, my teacher had an expression for this sort of behavior--tit for tat. Of course, back then we were talking about the antics of five year olds. In this case, we're talking about two nuclear powers than aren't exactly on the best of terms. The Russian Deputy Prime Minister announced that five of Russia's biggest oil companies are looking to form a consortium to increase Latin American operations and to build a $6.5 billion refinery to process Venezuela's tar-like heavy crude. Such an investment could help Venezuela, the world's ninth-biggest oil producer, wean itself from the U.S. refineries on which it depends to process much of its crude. He warned the United States that it should not view Latin America as its own backyard. "It would be wrong to talk about one nation having exclusive rights to this zone." Students of American history will notice that this is at odds with both the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary, but since when did those rotten Russians ever pay attention to American history?

Pakistan - U.S. helicopters flew into Pakistan's militant-infested border region, but returned to Afghanistan after troops and tribesmen opened fire, intelligence officials said. Washington denied the account. The alleged incident threatened new rifts between the United States and its key ally against terrorism days after a truck bomb struck a luxury hotel in Islamabad, killing 53 people. The two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media said two U.S. helicopters crossed one mile into Pakistan in the Alwara Mandi area in North Waziristan. One wonders what side these intelligence officials work for. They certainly seem to have an awful lot of details about something that the Pentagon says never happened.

United Arab Emirates - It's the latest word in Persian Gulf excess: a $1.5 billion resort boasting a $25,000-a-night suite and dolphins flown in from the South Pacific — all atop an island built in the shape of a palm tree. Environmentalists have long criticized both Palm Jumeirah island and some of the features of the Atlantis hotel and analysts wonder if global financial turmoil will crimp Dubai's big hopes for tourists. Dubai is not blinking. The 113-acre resort on the artificial island off the coast is among the city-state's biggest bets that tourism can help sustain its economy once regional oil profits stop flowing. By 2010, Dubai aims to attract 10 million hotel visitors annually, up from about 7 million in 2007. Atlantis alone will increase the city's hotel capacity by 3%. So far, demand appears strong. The Middle East had the highest hotel occupancy rates in the world during the first half of the year, with Dubai leading the region at 85.3%. Remember the good old days when the capital of excess was right here in the good U.S. of A.? Ah well, Las Vegas had a pretty good run in its heyday. But seriously, the Palm Jumeirah island quite simply puts Vegas to shame. This joint is the definition of over-the-top excess.

China - China plans to launch its most ambitious space mission yet, a sign of rising confidence as Beijing cements its status as a space power and potential future competitor to the United States. The Shenzhou 7 mission, to launch as early as Thursday, will be the first to carry a full complement of three astronauts, one of whom will perform China's first space walk, or EVA for "extra-vehicular activity." Well, you have to hand it to the Chinese Space Agency--they've got that pretentious acronym thing down. It is China's third manned mission. The maneuver will help China master docking techniques needed for the construction of a space station, likely to be achieved initially by joining one Shenzhou orbiter to another. Future goals are believed to include an unmanned moon landing around 2012, a mission to return samples in 2015, and possibly a manned lunar mission by 2017 — three years ahead of the U.S. target date for returning to the moon. Call me crazy, but does this whole deal of the Chinese going up against the U.S. sound like a pissing match? Of course, this could set the precedent of being the first inter-planetary pissing match, which, quite frankly I didn't think I would live long enough to see. I'm thinking that old adage of 'necessity being the mother of invention', might need to be updated. Maybe something to the effect of 'the bigger inferiority complex being the mother of invention.' Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?