What's Happening In The World?

Japan

• Two of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors are now in cold shutdown[1], while the other four continue to vent steam and smoke periodically. Power has been restored to all of the reactors, but safety checks need to be made before the electricity can be switched on - the seawater that was used as an emergency coolant may have corroded or otherwise damaged some systems.
• Tokyo stores ran out of bottled water after radiation made tap water unsafe for children under 1 year of age. The radiation levels are now reported to be back to safe levels for small children, but that has not stopped the water run. Additionally, Singapore and Australia have now joined the US and Hong Kong in restricting food and milk imports from the area impacted by the Fukushima Daiichi leak.

Libya

• UN airstrikes[2] have bombed Libya for a fifth night, but have been unable to stop Libyan armor units from shelling rebel-held towns or occupying strategic regions.

Portugal

• The PIIGS are back! Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates resigned yesterday after parliament rejected his government's latest austerity measures. This may very well pave the way for Portugal to go to the EU and the IMF for a bailout, particularly since they will need to refinance some 4.5 billion euros of sovereign debt next month.

Syria

• Syrian security forces opened fire on protesters yesterday afternoon, killing at least 25.

Yemen

• Civil war draws closer, as presidential guards loyal to President Saleh clashed with army units backing opposition groups.

[1] Meaning the coolant system is at atmospheric pressure and at a temperature below 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

[2] And by "UN", read "US". In the last 24 hours there have been 175 air strikes, and the US has flown 113 of them.

What's Happening Today? And Why Am I Tired?

Lots, as long as you're not looking for economic measures.

We've got a short trading day today - the equity markets close at 1 PM, and the bond markets at 2 PM.

It's Black Friday, so the Street will probably be holding its collective breath over the weekend to see how retail sales performed (or didn't, if the U of M's projections from Wednesday are any indicator).

The international markets are down over fears that Ireland will destroy the euro, that Portugal will destroy the euro if Ireland doesn't (Portugal is saying they're just fine, really, thanks for asking; it's almost exactly the language that Ireland was using as late as November 15, so surely we have no reason to be alarmed whatsoever), and that Kim Jong-Il and the North Korean Crazy [1] - who is, in his inimitably barking-mad fashion insisting that it is South Korea and the United States pushing towards war, pay no attention to my random artillery fire thank you very much - will destroy the Asian marketplace and part of Asia in the process.

Oh, and that morning fatigue you're feeling? It's probably due to L-tryptophan, an essential amino acid that cannot be synthesized by humans but is found in moderately large quantities in turkey meat (0.24 grams/100 grams of turkey, equal to chicken and 0.01 gram higher than beef). Most likely, you ate a lot of carbohydrates (stuffing and mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes) along with your turkey. All of those carbohydrates promote insulin secretion, which stimulates the uptake of many amino acids (l-tryptophan is not among them) into your muscles. This leaves you with more of the l-tryptophan in your blood. L-tryptophan converts into serotonin in your brain stem, which then turns into melatonin in your pineal gland. Melatonin promotes sleep, and now you have larger than normal quantities of melatonin in your brain.

Or, maybe, you just hit Black Friday this morning. Same end result, although the turkey made you less likely to have to kidney punch someone's grandmother over a toaster.

[1] With their latest release "Why Ya Gotta Make Me Hit Ya Baby?"

Of Course They're Not Pushing. Really.

The Financial Times Deutschland is reporting that several member nations of the European Union are now pushing Portugal to seek a bailout loan. (I'd have provided a link to the original article, but when I went looking for it I discovered that what German I can read has atrophied to the point that I could barely pick out one word in twelve.) This makes perfect sense, since Portugal is one of the PIIGS.

Of course, as we saw just two days ago, Portugal is denying this. They're insisting that they don't need help and all they need to do is enact some austerity measures to ensure that their budget remains solvent. "There is no reason for us to trigger any mechanism," is the official word from the Portuguese Ministry of Finance. There's been no political discussions about triggering any mechanism. We don't know how many times we have to say this, as a government, to stop all this inaccurate speculation."

No, wait. I'm wrong. That quote came from the Irish Minister of State for European Affairs, Dick Roche, on November 15. The Portuguese quote, from 11/21, states: "Once again I recall that Portugal is equipped with a banking system that is modern, sophisticated, well regulated and supervised, resilient and strongly capitalised."

Despite official declarations from Portugal and the EU that all is well, the markets are demanding increasing premiums for buying Portuguese sovereign debt.

"EU denies pushing Portugal towards bailout"