China may act as a shield for North Korea, according to this piece from Bloomberg News. It makes sense. The Butchers of Beijing don't care about the millions of oppressed and starving North Koreans, they just don't want them storming the border upon the collapse of the Kim Family Regime in Pyongyang. So they will do whatever is necessary to prop up that regime, and stand in the way of anything that might lead that regime to precipitate a resumption of the Korean War. The Chinese leaders know that such a war would inevitably lead to the collapse of the Kim regime and a flood of refugees, as well as creating a whole host of other social, political and economic problems for the region.

Paul B. Farrell says it is time to get out of stocks before the next crash.

Does the growing debt and increase in government obligations really matter? This op-ed piece in the New York Times makes the argument that it does, and that it is a burden we will not pass on to our children, since we will have to deal with it in our own lifetimes. This piece in The Telegraph argues that the precipitous drop in the money supply, the greatest since the Great Depression, is a warning sign of more trouble ahead, while this piece in the same newspaper argues that Europe is headed for a meltdown.