Another long video, but essential watching nonetheless. This is a lecture given at UCLA's Hammer Museum by William K. Black. He investigated the 1980s Savings and Loan crisis when he was at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. In this talk he discusses how more money was recently lost by one single bank, IndyMac, than during that entire crisis:

More on The Great American Bank Robbery

Here's a video (over an hour long!) which was recorded at the Edge "Reflections on a crisis" event held in Munich earlier this year. In it Daniel Kahneman, psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize for economics, and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, ex derivatives trader and now Professor of Risk Engineering and author, discuss how a toxic combination of corporate greed and human failings created the current economic crisis:

More on Reflections on the Financial Crisis

The remnants of Hurricane Hanna arrived on the shores of South West England last weekend. Hanna still packed a bit of a punch, as you can see in this video that we shot at Woolacombe on Sunday:

More on Hurricane Hanna Helps Out in Our EcoDriving Video

Over the last few days T. Boone Pickens has held meetings with both John McCain and Barack Obama.

Yesterday Mr. Pickens was interviewed by Neil Cavuto of Fox News about those talks. Here's what he had to say:

More on T. Boone Pickens Comments on the War in Georgia

A couple of days ago Mikhail Gorbachev, last head of state of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, wrote an article for the Washington Post. Mr. Gorbachev opened that article by saying:

More on Mikhail Gorbachev Comments on the War in Georgia

Josef Stalin was born Iosef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili in Gori, Georgia on December 18th 1878.

Yesterday a "ceasefire" was announced in the Georgian war, but the killing continued in Gori. According to the Daily Telegraph:

More on The Ghost of Stalin Stalks the Streets of Gori

Vladimir Putin left China yesterday, and arrived in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia:

Mr. Putin said he:

Wanted to discuss the influx of refugees. Russia's actions in South Ossetia are legally totally legitimate.

In an interview with the BBC Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said that:

More on Thousands of Innocents Died Yesterday – So It Goes

The spectacular opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games took place yesterday. The four-hour event was choreographed by celebrated Chinese film director Zhang Yimou. The finale was in the style of a martial arts movie, and involved former Olympic gymnastics champion Li Ning "running" along the rim of the roof of the Bird's Nest stadium, before using his Olympic torch to light the huge Beijing cauldron, home of the Olympic flame for the next few days.

More on Beijing Olympic Games Open – Smog Closes In

We didn't intend that this would be our headline for today, but shit happens.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn died last week. So it goes.

War has broken out on the border between East and West…. again.

More on Solzhenitsyn Dies – Putin Invades Georgia

Barack Obama gave a speech on Monday in Lansing Michigan, an area very familiar with the decline in the US automobile industry. He took the opportunity to outline his current energy policy, and he started out by laying his cards on the table:

More on Barack Obama – New Energy for America?