Quick Hits

• It appears that European countries have agreed to inject cash into their banking systems, a move that most economists have been promoting lately. In the very last paragraph of the New York Times story linked above, it's reported that the Bush administration will be following suit.

• This may turn the markets around, but for the first time many observers are calling for tougher times ahead even if they do. But for what it's worth, as of this writing, the Hang Seng and most Asian markets are up by a fair amount (the Hang Seng is up by more than 7.5 percent; the Nikkei is closed for a Japanese holiday, so it's still listing Friday's major drop). Europe has been open for a bit more than a hour, but most markets there are up substantially, too. I guess we'll see whether that's changed by the time you read this.

• As a taxpayer, I'm a partial owner of AIG now, right? So why do they keep sending me spam?

• Last night we discussed Sarah Palin and her troubled relationship with the truth. Tonight, Andrew Sullivan took up the same subject.

[S]he publicly denies reality, insists on repeating that denial and is unable to deal with real world the way psychologically healthy people do. That's why I called her lies "odd lies." They are not the lies of a devious politician. They are much more troubling than that. They reflect a psyche unable to process fact when it conflicts with a delusional self-image. She is even worse in this psychotic denialism than Bush. She is a politician who can only survive in a propaganda state.

Imagine that.