I can’t decide if this is a case of cluelessness, stubbornness, or both.  See, I try not to pay attention to the doings of the power elite when they gather each year for their conclave in Davos, Switzerland.

A wave of government bailouts around the world and a sharp deterioration in existing infrastructure could lead to as much as $35 trillion in public works spending over the next 20 years, according to a new study by CIBC World Markets.

Ukraine and Russia are at it again. This time, it’s turned especially nasty, as Russia cut off natural gas supplies to a host of European countries. Tired of relying on Russia, the EU will again look for alternatives. Its eyes will wander to Turkmenistan.

Here they come. At the end of 2008, all the social and personal signs of a real depression were absent. They are making themselves present now. The suicides, the frauds, the job losses…they’re all on the front pages of the papers now. If 2008 was the year of the financial crisis, 2009 will be the year it got personal.

Gaza bombing has dollar on the run…  More proof we’re turning Japanese…  Adding to the debt burden…  What will deflation do for the dollar? And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

I thought I was dreaming when I read on Bloomberg.com that short-term Treasuries rose in market value as buyers rushed to buy them, thus “pushing rates on the three-month bill negative for the first time, as investors gravitate toward the safety of U.S. government debt amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.”

General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC will receive $13.4 billion in loans from the federal government as part of an emergency measure to keep the companies operating at least until the spring.

The news just keeps getting worse, and I note with dismay that the latest report of initial claims for unemployment are 516,000 – well past the psychologically-important half-million mark – personal bankruptcies averaged “4,936 per business day in October” – which is up 8% from September and 34% more than October 2007.

Executives from Detroit’s “Big Three” auto companies – General Motors Corp. (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F), and Chrysler LLC – yesterday (Tuesday) joined Congressional Democrats on Capitol Hill to make the case for an industry-wide bailout that could spare their troubled companies from totally collapsing. Detroit’s bigwigs have been met with considerable resistance so far, but will continue to make their case today and into the New Year.

G20 largely a non-event…  Pound moves up…  Brazil falls on sell off of emerging markets…  Japan enters recession… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!