When their lips are moving, they are lying. This from RIA Novosti…

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed speculation on Friday that his country would not have enough natural gas for European consumers and pledged to launch new fields if the market grows.

“It is amusing to hear statements that Russia will not have enough gas for supplies to Europe…This is not so,” Medvedev told a Valdai International Discussion Club meeting.

Medvedev also said that the country’s plans to develop energy cooperation with Asian states would not adversely affect energy supplies to Europe.

Talk is cheap. The investment needed to secure future gas production is not. So far, their is no sign that the Russians are spending the necessary money to keep their exports from going down.

I have not been writing much about Washington Mutual because I did not have any good way of explaining why it was important. But Nemo provides good explanation of why this is not just another bank failure in the making.

From AFP….

According to the local state agriculture organisation, the drought had inflicted losses of more than two billion dollars by July.

“The problem is that in autumn there will be no water for next year,” said Mansour Rashidi, a provincial ministry of agriculture expert.

“The underground water table will not be replenished. We will be hit with the lowest amount of water ever because we have used up all the reserves.”

Tehran has allocated nearly five billion dollars to fight the drought nationally. Even arch-foe the United States, often referred to in Iran as the Great Satan, is helping out.

To cover demand, Iran needs to import five million tonnes of wheat to make up for this year’s drought-induced shortfall.

According to a recent US Department of Agriculture report, Tehran has bought 1.18 million tonnes of American hard wheat, commonly used in breads and pasta, since the 2008-2009 crop season began in June.

From the San Francisco Chronicle

Pension spiking (e.g., retroactive increases in pension benefits or pre-retirement promotions that qualify workers for bigger pension benefits), has been a major trend in California since our dot-com boom. It has saddled state and local governments with serious fiscal problems ever since (e.g., Orange County has a $2.7 billion pension deficit, and a 2005 review of California’s biggest government agencies found pension, health care and workers’ comp commitments more than $100 billion under-funded), even leading to bankruptcy by the city of Vallejo.

100 billion dollar short fall in one state. That is not pocket change.