09:02 – I’m so busy and the euro situation is so hopeless that I’m not going to bother to write about it any more. Merkozy are now talking openly about the breakup of the euro and the EU itself, and they’re talking about it as though it’s likely to occur sooner rather than later. Italian bond yields spiked to 8.1% yesterday, which is far past the point of no return. The 7% threshold is very real psychologically for the markets; once yields reach 7%, investors write off the issuer as so likely to default that it’s simply too risky to invest. That in turn causes bond yields to increase further in a vicious circle. So, Italy is gone, which means Spain and then France won’t be far behind. There’s nothing that can be done to stop the collapse–short of the ECB turning on the printing presses, which they’re not going to do–so it’s pointless to continue discussing it. The patient is brain-dead.
Work continues on the biology book. I’m doing a lab session right now on the effects of pollution on succession in microcosms. What fun. Build a tiny little world and then poison it. Forced selection and survival of the fittest.