The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

How many know what that alludes to?

The Dutch, who have been able to borrow up to 12 times their income to buy homes, are leveraged to the hilt. By some measures the Netherlands has the highest per capita mortgage debt in the European Union.

...

... The problem is also bigger than the economy. Collective Dutch mortgage debt rose from 140 billion euros in 1995 to 640 billion euros ($790 billion) last year - or from 46 percent to 105 percent of GDP.

...

If housing prices fall another 10 percent, the central bank projected last year, 30 percent of all mortgages would no longer be covered by the home value. That would lead to losses at the four Dutch commercial banks, where about one third of lending comes from mortgages and which are already reporting rising mortgage delinquency.

BBC News - Scientists dispel 'Miserable Monday' myth

We may say we hate Mondays, but research suggests Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are equally loathed.

US investigators who looked at a poll of 340,000 people found moods were no worse on Mondays than other working days, bar Friday.

People were happier as they approached the weekend, lending support for the concept of "that Friday feeling".

The report authors told the Journal of Positive Psychology that the concept of miserable Mondays should be ditched.

... Spain's reluctance is rational, rather than a reflection of stubborn national pride or a misunderstanding on the part of the government. It is a well-founded hesitation to follow others in becoming a ward of the eurozone. Until the continent's leaders fix these contradictions, the euro crisis will continue to pose a threat to Europe's historic regional integration efforts.

...

I suspect that these two factors [Eu loans are senior to privately held debt, and austerity policies are not balanced with growth enhancing measures] will be at the top of the agenda of Mariano Rajoy, Spain's prime minister, when he travels to Germany. He has likely been encouraged by recent remarks by ECB and German officials which suggest greater recognition among critical European decision making. But translating this into effective changes on the ground will not be easy.

...

European leaders will thus have to work hard to find innovative and imaginative solutions to both these issues. We should all hope that they are successful. If not, Spain's hesitation will be followed by two new twists in Europe's crisis: within a few weeks, a significantly larger economy would join three other eurozone members in becoming a ward of the European state; and Italy, an even bigger economy, would risk slipping to where Spain is today.

Volker Kauder, 62, is the head of the parliamentary group of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives. In a SPIEGEL interview, he defines his party's red lines in the euro bailout efforts and warns against hasty changes to the constitution in response to the euro crisis.

RT @JuliusFlywheel: RT @dianagram: (I can't take credit for this) ... "Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan" anagrams to "My ultimate Ayn Rand porn"

Phys.Org Mobile: Power-strip lookalike hacks office networks

Pwnie Express, the company specializing in cyber security products, calls its new device "ingenious." Bloggers hearing about it are paying attention to the fact that it is a power-strip lookalike but with far more ambitious intentions, such as stealth-penetrating a corporate network. Power Pwn is the name of the little device for security testing on corporate networks. It looks like an under the office desk power strip. It is actually a testing platform where security can be put to the test, a self-hacking tool for launching remotely-activated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet attacks.