Idiocracy in action: Congress blocks bill to audit the Fed… No surprise: American loan defaults hit record… Surprise: Could Canadians be next? China takes another “World’s No. 1” from U.S. … Dan Denning, Byron King on recent triumph and tragedy in the oil patch…

Even if Ben Bernanke is right about the stress tests truly reflecting the “financial conditions” of the banks, it doesn’t matter much. Banks themselves are still worried that they won’t get paid back on old loans.

We all know about the mess the United States, Britain, Spain and some other countries have gotten themselves into thanks to overenthusiastic housing bubbles.

Emerging markets investors have always had famed investor Jim Rogers on their side. Now – after the bubbles of China, India, Latin America and more have popped – they can take comfort in the word of investor Mark Mobius, who said emerging markets are “bottoming” en route to a bull phase in 2009.

Within the last year, the true extent of the real estate debacle and ensuing credit crisis in the United States has become blatantly obvious.   But now there is a new phenomenon rearing its ugly head: a credit crisis of the individual that is hitting a large number of Americans straight in the pocketbook. The reason: credit providers have started to batten down the hatches.

In the currency market, the dollar slipped against the euro. Late Monday, the euro was trading at $1.5491 vs. $1.5424 on Friday.

“The rise in consumer credit delinquencies is consistent with a rapidly slowing economy. Stress in the housing market still dominates the story, but it’s a broader tale.” James Chessen, ABA Chief Economist.