There’s no question that the big “winner” in the global financial crisis has been China. While for the past two years developed economies have been scrambling to keep afloat China has taken a nuanced approach to achieving its economic and political goals.

The Swiss franc is still a good currency relative to the majority of paper trash still circulating in the world, but it isn’t quite the beacon of strength it once was…

U.S. banks are going bad as quickly as a bunch of over-ripe peaches in the summer heat. On the heels of the Colonial Bank failure comes another sizable bank failure.

A new Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.  (FDIC) plan to offload busted banks to vulture investors strikes an uneven balance between private equity players and public taxpayers and may inadvertently sow the seeds for another round of bank failures.

All the factors that set the fertilizer bull market in motion in the first place are still here. Populations are still growing. Diets are shifting toward more fruits, vegetables and meats — all fertilizer intensive. As Potash CEO Bill Doyle says, “This will continue to put pressure on global grain supplies, as farmers are being challenged to produce more with land and water resources that are shrinking on a per capita basis.”

Bernanke sticks to the script…  Pound sterling comes under pressure…  China starts shopping for assets…  BRIC MarketSafe lights up the phones… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Oil dropped well over a dollar to below $62 a barrel on Wednesday, placing it on course for a sixth consecutive fall and the longest losing streak since mid-December, after U.S. data showed a big rise in fuel stocks.

Right now, there’s more than $9.5 trillion in cash on the sidelines – or more than twice the amount of money currently invested in stock mutual funds, according to MoneyNet.inc and the U.S. Federal Reserve. Private equity firms alone are believed to hold as much as an additional $1.3 trillion.