The Whole Delivery

Photo from DPA It really isn't in already bad times, at all : The austerity measures that were supposed to fix Greece's problems are dragging down the country's economy. Stores are closing, tax revenues are falling and unemployment has hit an unbelievable 70 percent in some places. Frustrated workers are threatening to strike back. The feast of the Assumption of Mary on Aug. 15 is the high point of summer in the Greek Orthodox world. Here in one of the country's many churches, believers pray to the Virgin for mercy, with many of them falling to their knees. As Atrios summed it up...." It really is depressing. " But making it more of an embarrassment is that the US seems very comfortable heading right in that direction . Priorities!

Photo from Indybay.org The global market is failing. Iceland, instead of asking the States to bail it out, asked Russia. Fall Street is spreading all over the world. (And yes, the journalists at CNBC, plus Bloomberg too, blame the companies and the government, but really, should hold themsleves accountable first for doing shoddy journalism that should place them in shame forever.) And both Vladmir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev have been rubbing it in . "Trust in the United States as the leader of the free world and the free economy, and confidence in Wall Street as the center of that trust, has been damaged, I believe, forever," Putin said. "There will be no return to the previous situation." Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev have repeatedly accused the U.S. of responsibility for the crisis and called for changes in the world financial system. But to be honest, Putin is honestly right. How can you trust something when it has caused a change effect of international ma...

Even the bailout couldn't prevent this from happening . Then again, what quick bill, no matter how big it is, can prevent the last eight years of terrible policies and practices from happening? A runaway train of a sell-off turned the anniversary of the stock market peak into one of the worst days in Wall Street history Thursday, driving the Dow Jones industrials down a breathtaking 679 points and deepening a financial crisis that has defied all efforts to stop it. Stocks lost more than 7 percent, $872 billion of investments evaporated, and the Dow fell to 8,579. When the average crashed through the 9,000 level for the first time in five years in the final hour of trading, sellers had only begun to hit the gas pedal. As bad as the day was, even worse was the cumulative effect of a historic run of declines: The Dow suffered a triple-digit loss for the sixth day in a row, a first, and the average dropped for the seventh day in a row, a losing streak not seen since 2002. But really t...