Lakota Nation declares independence

It's only in the Weird News sections right now, but the Lakota seem to be declaring de facto independence by renouncing the treaties with the US government which have long been ignored by the US government anyway. They've been meeting with various embassy staffs in DC, looking for recognition. This link is to zarq's livejournal entry on it, which contains links to a number of of stories and articles.

Boom.

(Hang on, hang on, tight)

Boom. Boom (first story in comments, but also the column). Boom. Boom.

This class of insurers form the core of the hedge funds game. If they can't pay out, the entire game collapses. We're talking trillions, plural, of dollars here in full playout.

ETA: 173,022 MBIA-Insured Issues on Rating Watch Negative. That's bad.
ETA2: Fitch Places 137,893 Ambac-Insured Issues on Rating Watch Negative. That's bad too.