The Europeans are getting in on the act…it doesn’t take a genius to see there was going to be Hell to pay. The end of euphoria…if Warren Buffett’s warning Congress that they need to take action – you know we’re in trouble. Bush urges Congress to take action…what’s bad for the dollar is good for gold…and more!

In the currency market, the dollar pushed higher against the euro. Late Monday, the euro was trading at $1.4477 vs. $1.4608 on Friday. The British pound was also off, by 1.5%, to $1.8147.

The outlook for the US economy isn’t pretty.

As we reported earlier this morning, economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimate US growth will slow to 0.5 percent from October to December.

The US economy is not yet officially a recession. But most commentators are treating it as such, including Lord William Rees-Mogg, former editor of The Times and regular contributor to The Daily Reckoning UK. Lord Rees-Mogg says there won’t be a recovery until the first half of 2009…

I’m reading a strange little book this week. It is called The Fall of Northern Rock and is written by an ex-employee of the now nationalised bank called Brian Walters. I’m not quite sure why Walters was the one commissioned to write the book, for the simple reason that he doesn’t seem to have any more inside knowledge into the affair than the rest of us.

Banks haven’t exactly been covering themselves in glory recently. The sector has gone from one pratfall to another ever since Northern Rock first warned it was in trouble last summer.

When is a Black Swan not a Black Swan? When the “perfect storm of highly improbable events” happens all the time.

Freedom! It’s taken us almost half the year, but we’re finally free! Free from the shackles of state oppression! No, I haven’t turned into a student communist.