Monday, Monday...

The title should be sung with a smiling voice. Do you like Mondays? I do. Sundays are the hardest days of the week for me so I always feel bright-eyed and bushy-tailed early Monday mornings. And yes, I know how annoying that can be...

Here is my Monday's collection of news and other stuff of interest (probably only to me):

Billmon has a good discussion of the current ugly economic situation with some theories about what might be going on. Go read Billmon if you are one of those grumpy Monday people, then take your money out of the financial institutions and store it in your mattress. Or send it all to me for better investing!

In other news, Ann Coulter will be the cover girl of Time this week. And it isn't even Halloween!

Then there are the worsening Sino-Japanese relations. I wonder how much of the protests in China are really driven by something else than the memories from WWII? These protests offer a fairly safe avenue for venting anger in a country which doesn't usually allow it. But it is true that nationalism is getting stronger and stronger in China, and that may be all the explanation that is needed.

Nationalism is often accompanied by other (even?) less wholesome trends such as racism. All countries probably have certain types of racism. The Chinese types are discussed in this Guardian article about Condoleezza Rice's visit to the area.

And the cardinals will enter the conclave now. Will they eat chocolate ice-cream there? How much politicking will be practised? We will probably never know. What I do know is that I am pained by the thought that no woman is regarded as good enough to help in the selecting of the next pope.