This bit just came in over Stratfor Site Reps:

0116 GMT - Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said Aug. 26 that authorities have arrested 28 people since the Aug. 18 raid that killed local al Qaeda leader Saleh al-Oufi. Al Arabiya television also aired footage of Saudi special forces engaged in firefights with militants and destroying buildings where militants were believed to be hiding. The Interior Ministry said the arrests prevented attacks inside the kingdom.

Hokay, you're watching Al Arabiya, you can hear the gunfire and explosions in the distance. How can you know that the special forces are not zealots in uniform driving stolen police cruisers demolishing buildings where the security forces dwell?

But it's not war, and I'm not short crude, WHEW

What passes for incessant and widening budget and current account deficits is really the unfolding of J. Peter Grace's contention in 1981 that compound interest and time would wipe out any amount of $$. " Given twenty years time and compounding there isn't enough money" ( read: without hyperinflation ) to pay for the future dimension of these programs, Medicare/Medicade; Soc Sec; et alia. Twentyfour years on the money is sloshing out of the US because it's going to pay off outsider's claims on a first come first served basis...don't forget to get paid before the feds do what they're so good at: breaking promises. While Congress crushed Grace for calling them clowns (he apologized "Only half of them are clowns") , Greenspan meanwhile is "credited", in the last government action on Soc Sec, with upping the age to retire while simultaneously taxing the benefits . Add to that the consumer here reflexively piling on the debt. Soc Sec will force the feds hand and all kinds of "reforms" like new borrowing, increased taxation, reduced benefits will come spilling out of congress. Let's be sure to get paid before the money runs out. Do not be fooled by a record low in the implied volatility of S&P 500 options. It's sure to rebound and in a big way as government bonds reverse. Consider spreading the out of the money puts.

BOYCOTT CITGO NOW

Castro's shill, Chavez and Venezeula own Citgo. Venezuela delivers US lots of crude/day. They own the marketeer, Citgo. They need to sell Citgo before they really attempt to inconvenience the US and since Citgo handles the thick crude from Venezuela if we boycott, they are really awash in thick, read discounted, crude they need to market elsewhere....thereby increase their shipping $$. Chavez is on the march in Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, do you have a problem with that?

Roid Rage

Prominent athletes enhancing performance through the use of drugs is nothing but another chapter in the successful evolution of the species. Drugs are one of many regimens used by athletes to overreach themselves in the grand tradition of species enhancement. The hue and cry against the genie now out of the bottle is a familiar song of the millenia. Imagine the neanderthal back from a hunt with the biggest pile of prey being named and shamed by less prominent hunters for using a sling. The Lunatic Fringe is a longtime supporter of what works. If you're counting RBI's then if roid use leads to more of them, then by all means let's disclose their role and move on.

It's still the early innings in the development of performance enhancing substances. For the early users the science of performance enhancers may be a net loser. Like early flight, many accidents appear incautious or tragic. But when disclosed and exposed to the light of day much progress can be anticipated. A greying population would do well encourage the use and improvement of performance enhancing substances as an alternative to being laid to waste by the aging process.

LOVE THE TSUNAMI

Imagine the crocodile tears shed by the ruling classes of the nations hardest hit. Let's take Indonesia. It doesn't get any better than this. Instead of a couple millions per year to monitor the surrounding oceans, the gross negligence of government there will result in a windfall to the ruling elites. After losing ~ 230,000 subjects killed and missing in a cataclysm, the effects of which were largely avoidable just in case tidal monitors were deployed, the opportunities for baksheesh are mindboggling. So far pledges of $1,700,000,000 have been made for the first year. The Indonesian government has made assurances that this fortune will be monitored to prevent corruption. More likely any monitoring will have the goal of making sure the skim makes it back to the relevant players. A conservative baksheesh level of 15% yields a quarter of a billion in skim the first year! Indonesian corruption suggests that conservative levels of baksheesh will be breached. And yet this is only a headline number. The windfall has multiple facets, eg, kickbacks from resort developers who will construct concrete playgrounds on the beaches once littered with indigenious losers.

The fires still burn in Indonesia that result from escalating swidden farming of the interior. Remember the smog covering the whole of SE Asia in 1997?

There is no cost to the ruling elites for gross negligence. Instead of jail for failing in the first responsibility of government these folks will prosper like never before.

And how.

U.N. Nuclear Chief Offers to Go Personally

The U.N.'s chief nuclear inspector, Mohammed ElBaradei, called on North Korea's leader to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to return to his nation, offering in an interview released Saturday to go personally if it would help.

And why not. Similar calibre and understanding, Mr. Kim, MR. ElBaradei. Expect big things.

Today, the SEC asked Berkshire Hathaway's General Re unit to provide information related to insurance products aimed at mitigating financial losses. Hmm, and the purpose of purchasing insurance would be exactly what if not to mitigate loss in the financial sense?