Another sign of world wide economic distress:  bank run in Latvian.  While one may say "where is Latvia and why do we care about their bank run?"  it is important to remember the  interconnected-ness of our world, especially our economic world.  "Latvians are particularly sensitive to speculation about banks' health. Latvijas Krajbanka, the country's 10th largest bank, was nationalized last month after regulators discovered evidence of massive fraud allegedly carried out by the bank's former owner, Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov. Depositors were deprived of access to their funds for days. And three years ago the country's second largest bank, Parex Bank, entered technical default and had to be taken over by the government, which in turn forced Latvia to appeal to international creditors and the European Union for a €7.5 billion ($10.5 billion) bailout." Here is a link: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/latvias-largest-bank-fights-off-depositor-run-rumours-103638265.html Michael