From a Saturday Globe and Mail column by Avner Mandelman. He talked about how the Roman general Fabius used an early "rope-a-dope" strategy against Hannibal and let the invader destroy the Italian countryside for a while before taking him on:

... Today's debt tsunami may have to be allowed to exhaust itself by eating up the only store of value left: Everyone's savings (including foreigners'), following massive money printing. And so inflation must come back, the U.S. dollar must decline, gold must rise, and bonds must tank - eventually. And if bonds fall, they would take the market down with them - and the economy.

Unless. Unless.

Unless this financial debacle ends the same way the previous one did in the late Thirties - in a large-scale war. Because with so much capital destroyed, democracies look mostly inward, their will to respond firmly and early to mad rulers and evil dictators is diminished, and so evil can run unchecked for a while - until it becomes intolerable and war becomes inevitable. And a large-scale modern war, unfortunately, boosts the economy - at least for a while.

Will the late Thirties' history repeat? I hope not. But time will tell. Meanwhile, see gold as an inflation substitute for cash, and get ready to enjoy the market rise after this lengthy, scary bottom. Hannibal, remember, stopped at the gates of Rome, and so will this market slide stop - very soon.

CBC News publisher John Cruickshank has the following headline over his letter about the Sept. 5 Heather Mallick column about Sarah Palin: "We erred in our judgment." It doesn't get better for Mallick from there.

It's been a temperate summer in much of North America. So does that mean global warming is over? Not by a long shot.

Sweden and Denmark are two countries that adopted carbon taxes in the early 1990s. Surprisingly, their citizens don't find themselves living in caves with rags wrapped around their feet today.

In the 1990s, Pakistan's government began nurturing the Taliban as a way to gain influence over Afghanistan. But now, Islamabad's malignant child is turning on its parent.

Observe:

You can find the caption text here. And here's the link to Ibbitson's column on the McCain-Obama debate.