St Paddy's Day Massacre

The dollar is taking a beating against the yen and the DOW has lost all it's gains for 2011, losing 4% since the quake, tsunami and nuclear plant crisis in Japan. You would think the events occurred in the US based upon market behavior.

The Nikkei market opened down 4%. Expect the carnage to move east to NY in the morning.

Today I received notices from electronic part suppliers that said they were facing shortages and would do everything they could to get parts. Trouble is already brewing in the global supply chain. Think inflation and recession.

Obama has been invisible and will run away to Rio to vacation next weekend. Congress extended the budget as the US debt went to$14.3T.US debt climbed $72B today.

Gaddafi wins in Libya while the EU, UN and US dithers over a response. Saudi troops move into Bahrain and protesters die as Iran declares the move an "act of war". The US wasn't even notified. Why bother? The US is irrelevant in the world these days.
 
The Saudi Day of Rage is Sunday. There could be a revolution in KSA next week.

The Japanese are dumping water on Reactor 3 while prepping spray the Reactor 4 storage pool with water cannons. 50 dead men are working the site, occasionally bathed in gamma radiation. No one really knows the condition of reactors, cores, containment or storage pools. There is a slight chance that Reactor storage 4 could go critical from neutrons when water is reintroduced. Who knows anymore?

Fast neutrons are interesting. They are the stuff of fission bombs, making them go boom AND they split atoms of anything that they contact. You don't want them flying around at all.

At some point it makes sense to drop a nuke on the Fukushima site to end the problem.

Everything I've read suggests the US heartland won't see any cesium, iodine or other radiation products of any significant density no matter what. The real danger seems to be if this conflagration goes on for a decade or so

All my blog hits are "Obama Gun Ban" or "Real Lara Logan Story". I guess those are the important things these days.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day.