Nathaniel C. Fick and Vikram J. Singh: "Winning the battle, losing the faith." The International Herald Tribune. Former U.S. military and defense officers say there is a bigger enemy for the American military in Afghanistan than the Taliban: the fast-falling confidence of the country's people.

Michael Clemens: "Crisis? Not if we take a long view." Global Development: Views from the Center (blog). Stop panicking about the financial crisis and remember that many like it have come (and gone) before it.

"Beggar Thy Neighbor." The Economist. Rumor has it that European banks will be the next to fall, so European governments are following Washington to come up with a bailout plan. Too bad they followed Congress too; bickering has left each country charting its own course.

"In Taiwan's Defense" The Wall Street Journal. Why an arms deal for Taiwan arms the country for moral -- not just mortal -- combat with China.

Andrei Illarionov: "Fighting Financial Fires with Blini." The St. Petersburg Times (Russia). This quote says it all:

In Korney Chukovsky’s classic children’s poem, “Putanitsa” (“The Muddle”), a crocodile is unable to put out a fire with pirogi and blini. Similarly, the fire of Russia’s deep and long-term institutional crisis cannot be extinguished with the financial “pirogi and blini” offered by Russian leaders — particularly when these goodies are doled out only to their close friends."

Economic prophet-of-doom Nouriel Roubini seems to be feeling pretty smug these days, and who can blame him. Here's part of an e-mail he sent in response to a question from Portfolio's Felix Salmon:

Read my February 12 steps to a financial disaster paper. We are now as I predicted at step 12
Sorry if I now say I told you so...
Feeling a little chastised for giving me so much s--t on your blog for the last year and siding persistently with those who missed the boat and said all wil be fine? Should I expect a public mea culpa?
It would be useful if you would publicly admit you got it totally wrong for the last year.

Salmon obliges.

For the record, no one can accuse FP of blowing off Roubini. The RGE Monitor chairman wrote a cover story on "The Coming Financial Pandemic" for our March/April issue and a Web exclusive on why "a financial meltdown is more likely than ever" exactly a year ago.

When you're a herdsman in Kenya experiencing a particularly nasty drought desperate times call for, well, a fairly practical and simple measure: birth control, or as some are naming it, the goat condom.

The "condom" is actually a square piece of rawhide or plastic called an "olor" that is tied around the male goats belly and "blocks" them from mating with the female goats.

Herdsmen in the Maasai community -- where livestock is often the only means of income -- live in a region outside Nairobi that usually has erratic and unreliable rainfall that increasingly threatens their livelihood. The fear is that if the goats breed before the rainy season comes, the females will not be healthy enough to nurture their kids and there will be more goats than there are resources necessary to sustain the herd.

The olor may not be a modern measure, but it's certainly effective. Separating the males from the females is not an easy alternative and is, in fact, far more expensive since another herdsman is needed. Once the rains come and the land is rich and green, the olors will be removed and the goats will be free to live free and procreate.

All in all, it sounds quite sensible. Thank goodness the global gag rule doesn't apply to livestock.

Barack Obama's ancestral homeland is probably not the best place to go around talking about the candidate's Muslim ties, un-American background, and secret "black rage":

The American author of a best-selling, controversial book blasting White House hopeful Barack Obama faces deportation from Kenya after being detained by security officials, police said on Tuesday.

 

Jerome Corsi, who was scheduled to unveil "The Obama Nation" to the Kenyan public at a Nairobi hotel, was briefly detained in the capital Nairobi early Tuesday, officially for "visa-related issues."

Kenyan officials deny that the decision to deport Corsi was politically motivated, though the author had announced plans to "expose deep secret ties between between U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and a section of the Kenyan government leaders."

Much as Obama supporters might be loving this, Corsi's deportation is only going to create about 23 new conspiracy theories.

(Hat tip: Chris Blattman)

Need another reason to watch the debate tonight? In his Seven Questions interview, elections expert and Northeastern University professor Alan Schroeder told FP:

[The debates have] been called a job interview, so a lot of times we are just going on instinct. You don’t know what really will happen when you hire someone, so does this person give off an aura of being able to handle the very difficult job of being president? You can’t know for sure, but you can apply the very same judgments about human interaction that you use on daily basis. That’s what debates do that the rest of the campaign trail doesn’t.

Read the whole interview for Professor Schroeder's take on each of the candidates' debating styles. You might even wind up more prepared than the presidential hopefuls.

It really is a brave new world. The president of Russia is vlogging:

 

I must say it's not bad, though hardly surprising from Russia's geek-in-chief, who starts each morning reading international papers online. United Russia deputy Sergei Markov, who we last heard expounding enthusiastically about how sexy Vladimir Putin is, has another choice quote in today's Guardian about the president's cyber-savvy:

For him to use the internet and video is not something extraordinary. It's normal. I would say that Medvedev is very comfortable with the internet in the same way that Putin is comfortable when he's in church."

TMZ's guerrilla-journalism interview with Katie Couric, above, is making the rounds. Best part: Couric says, "Everyone lies about The Economist, but I actually read it."

Think Richard Fuld didn't humiliate himself enough yesterday?

Appearing before Rep. Henry Waxman's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Monday, the Lehman Brothers CEO said he felt "horrible" about his company's collapse, adding, "I wake up every single night wondering what I could have done differently."

"Your company is now bankrupt and our country is in a state of crisis," Waxman asked. "You get to keep $480 million. I have a very basic question: Is that fair?"

Ouch. Pretty embarrassing, right?

Well, this is how they do corporate apologies in Japan:

That's via James at Japan Probe, who explains that the man in the video is president of a study abroad company that went bankrupt.

UPDATE: I'm not sure if this kind of stuff happens in Japan, however. 

I love this story about a wealthy Abu Dhabi investor who wanted to buy the Manchester United soccer club, butwas disappointed by the price he was offered:

The investor, an Abu Dhabi royal who had earned billions last year, was not interested in a bargain -- he was looking for a huge deal to make an impressive splash internationally. A multibillion-dollar price tag, easily within his group's means, would cause far more jaws to drop than anything in the millions.

"When he thought it was $4 billion, he was really excited," said Bhoyrul, who declined to name the individual. "When he found out it was $400 million, he was disappointed."

Top Story

It was another ugly Monday on Wall Street and in markets around the world.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped below 10,000 points for the first time in four years, while the S&P 500 fell 3.85 percent. London's FTSE suffered its largest points fall in history. All told, some $2.5 trillion in shareholder value was wiped out.

Now, according to the New York Times, the $700 billion U.S. bailout "looks like a pebble tossed into a churning sea." Major, coordinated international action may be needed to shore up confidence.

Credit markets remained nearly frozen as British lenders sought emergency funding and Iceland nationalized Landsbanki, its No.2 bank.

"Deceleration of growth and deteriorating financial conditions, combined with monetary tightening, will trigger business failures and possibly banking emergencies," warns World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

Nearly 60 percent of Americans believe a "depression" is likely.

Even the pope is weighing in, saying yesterday, "He who builds only on visible and tangible things like success, career and money builds the house of his life on sand."

Decision '08

John McCain, taking a harsher line against the Democratic nominee yesterday, asked, "Who is the real Barack Obama?" His running mate, Sarah Palin, also got rough.

Republican strategist Mike Murphy is not impressed.

Obama is taking the lead in the key swing state of Ohio.

Americas

In Brazil, wiretapping is becoming a tool of first resort.

Tijuana's notorious Arellano Felix drug cartel is being massacred. But by whom?

Asia

Even Burma is now warning its people to stay away from Chinese dairy products.

China is suspending military and diplomatic exchanges with the United States.

Thai police used tear gas at a mass rally against new PM Somchai Wongsawat.

A suicide bomber killed at least 20 people in Pakistan Monday.

Middle East and Africa

In Saudi-brokered talks, the Taliban is said to be severing its ties to al Qaeda.

The Arab League is dispatching an envoy to Iraq in a sign of warming relations.

Iran is building a car especially designed for women.

Europe and the Caucasus

Britain's climate-change watchdog wants the country to nearly end its use of fossil fuels for power in 20 years.

The U.S. military will remain in Kosovo through 2009.

Plucky Georgia is falling short when it comes to press freedoms.

Today's Agenda

U.S. President George W. Bush speaks on the economy at 1:45 p.m. ET.

The U.S. presidential candidates hold their second of three debates at 9 p.m. ET.

The boards of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund begin their annual joint meetings in Washington.

Yesterday, Lehman Brothers CEO Richard S. Fuld Jr. got an earful before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Today, it's former AIG chief Maurice R. Greenberg's turn.

Preeti Aroon

"Spare Me the Sermon on Muslim Women," by Mohja Kahf in the Washington Post. "Being a Muslim woman is a joyful thing," says Kahf, before she goes on to list the many ways Islam is pro-women. She may have some valid points, but that certainly doesn’t mean Islam is practiced in a pro-women way in all places.

Jerome Chen

"Have Pentecostalism, will travel." As Sarah Palin's public profile grows, many are questioning her religious practices. Christian fundamentalism is common in the United States, of course. In the Times Literary Supplement, David Martin explores the side of the Alaska Governor's faith in which believers receive special gifts from God -- talking in tongues, for example. It also offers surprising insights into how Pentecostalism has gone global.

Elizabeth Dickinson

The Ibrahim Index of African Governance. Sudanese entrepreneur Mo Ibrahim thinks he knows how to make government more accountable: reward it. Several years ago, his foundation began awarding $5 million grants to the best of African leaders. The Foundation also ranks governments throughout the continent on everything from services to safety to economic growth.

Rebecca Frankel

People are still squabbling over who is qualified to be a heartbeat from the presidency after Thursday night's vice presidential debate. But in 1974, the late historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. took that question one step further in, "Is the Vice Presidency Necessary?" for the Atlantic Monthly. "[Presidents] pick a running mate," he writes, "because of intricate and generally mistaken calculations about the contribution he will make to victory at the polls."

Blake Hounshell

“Meet Neel Kashkari: The Man With the $700 Billion Wallet,” by Heidi N. Moore of Deal Journal, the Wall Street Journal blog. Kashkari is the bald-pated Goldman Sachs alumnus and former aerospace engineer tasked with handling the U.S. Treasury Department’s $700 toxic-waste dump. Maybe he can figure out how to make this turkey fly.

Joshua Keating

The rise and fall Muxtape, a file-sharing site that let users create 12-song mixes from their personal MP3 collections for online streaming, is a great example of the American recording industry spoiling the fun for music lovers around the world. Founder "Justin" details decisive run-ins with the Recording Industry Association of America, including meetings where he was told both "You are a willful infringer and we are mere hours from shutting you down" and "Assuming we don't shut you down, how do you see us working together?" New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones also weighs in.

President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan suprised quite a few with his comments about relations with India in a Wall Street Journal interview over the weekend:

When I ask whether he would consider a free-trade agreement with traditional archenemy India, Mr. Zardari responds with a string of welcome, perhaps even historic, surprises. "India has never been a threat to Pakistan," he says, adding that "I, for one, and our democratic government is not scared of Indian influence abroad." He speaks of the militant Islamic groups operating in Kashmir as "terrorists" -- former President Musharraf would more likely have called them "freedom fighters" -- and allows that he has no objection to the India-U.S. nuclear cooperation pact, so long as Pakistan is treated "at par." "Why would we begrudge the largest democracy in the world getting friendly with one of the oldest democracies in the world?"

Not only does Mr. Zardari want better ties with Delhi, he notes that "there is no other economic survival for nations like us. We have to trade with our neighbors first." He imagines Pakistani cement factories being constructed to provide for India's huge infrastructure needs, Pakistani textile mills meeting Indian demand for blue jeans, Pakistani ports being used to relieve the congestion at Indian ones. For a country that spent most of its existence trying to show that it's the military equal of its neighbor, the agenda amounts to a remarkable recognition of the strides India has made in becoming a true world power.

Zardari's description of the Kashmir rebels as "terrorists" rather than "freedom fighters" or "jihadis" as Pakistani politicians have traditionally referred to them was particularly controversial. Kashmiri seperatists responded by breaking curfew to protest and burn him in effigy. Zardari has since walked back his remarks somewhat, assuring the public that there's no change in Pakistan's Kashmir policy.

While it would be great if Zardari intended to get serious about normalizing relations with India, it seems like there might have been a bettter way to go about it than overturning decades of military policy through an off-the-cuff remark to an American reporter. Given how fragile his political position is, he might want to cover his flanks a bit more thoroughly before he makes another comment like this.

Welcome to Smart Takes, a daily feature that we'd like to try out on Passport. Every morning, we'll scour the Internet for five excellent editorials or other items and post them here by lunchtime, ET. Have a read and feel free to suggest other "smart takes" in comments.

"Reactions of the Wall Street Slump" The Economist. Published in 1929. The Economist proves that if you dig back far enough in the archives, you might just come full circle. 

"Finance Crisis: In Graphics" BBC News. Depressingly correct charts on the credit crisis and its growing fallout.

Chandran Nair: "Obama: the change Asia needs?" The Financial Times. It's an open secret: The "rest of the world" is rooting for the Democrats -- but the bar has been set low, and what might follow would be a true game of limbo indeed.

Yossi Alpher: "Israel should get to know Hamas a bit better." The Daily Star (Beruit). Hamas is in Gaza to stay, and Israel, argues Alpher, would do well to start befriending its new neighbor. No one is baking cookies yet. 

Zapiro cartoon: The Mail and Guardian (South Africa). South Africa's Thabo Mbeki contemplates his legacy while enemies wait at the gallows.

The creative minds inside Israel's Border Police have invented a new crowd control weapon, one that pays homage to that devil of a stinker, Pepé Le Pew. 

Israel's police force has a bad rep when it comes to deploying force against protestors -- both left-wing Israeli activists and Palestinians. Critics have called into question the use of rubber-covered steel bullets (which when shot at close range can shatter bones) and tear gas (which burns the eyes and induces vomiting) on numerous occasions.

The push to find alternative, less dangerous weaponry began in 2000 after 13 Arab Israelis were killed by police fire. In a conscious effort to reduce potential injury when force is required (and to avoid future flak), Israeli security forces are now employing a new invention: "The Skunk." 

The concoction, sprayed in a cannon-like stream into the air, showering down upon crowds, is said to be highly effective.

Here's how one BBC reporter describes it:

Imagine the worst, most foul thing you have ever smelled. An overpowering mix of rotting meat, old socks that haven't been washed for weeks -- topped off with the pungent waft of an open sewer.

Imagine being covered in the stuff as it is liberally sprayed from a water cannon.

Then imagine not being able to get rid of the stench for at least three days, no matter how often you try to scrub yourself clean." 

The stench -- which apparently lingers on the skin and in hair for days and can be smelled from quite a distance -- is a serious problem. Apparently, neither soap nor tomato sauce is doing the job. It's so potent that even police stations can't store Skunk, as the smell permeates containers.

While some are still unsure that Israel's police force has found its silver bullet, amazingly, the substance is completely non-toxic and contains zero poison. The head of the police's department of technological development, David Ben Harosh, who, much to the dismay of his family first tested Skunk on himself, says it's so safe, "You can drink it, and you would definitely have a great protein drink." 

Many in Israel and Palestine are likely to celebrate the steps the Israeli police are taking to reduce violence, but I doubt anyone caught in the spray will be toasting The Skunk.

The Los Angeles Times reviewed John McCain's record in the Navy and found him to be "a pilot who early in his career was cocky, occasionally cavalier and prone to testing limits."

Imagine! A cocky fighter pilot.

Granted, there are only so many ways photographers can show a stock market in decline. Still, couldn't the folks at Getty Images leave this poor German trader alone and find someone else to use as a stand-in for an entire continent's economic fears?

Here she is earlier today, a terse, worried look on her face as Germany's DAX Index plunges to its lowest point since July 2006:

Here she was on Sept. 30 as the DAX crossed below 6,000 points:

Here she was looking cautiously optimistic on Sept. 19 as the Dax rose on news of the Wall St. bailout:

And here she was pursing her lips disapprovingly on a particularly grim Sept. 16, in a photo that made the front page of the Financial Times:

I bet she wishes she can go back to the days of Sept. 15, when she could do her job in relative obscurity:

UPDATE: The woman's name is Simone Wallmeyer. The Independent interviewed her Friday. "I'm afraid I get photographed because of the board rather than me," she told the paper.

(Thanks to a sharp-eyed Passport reader for the name.)

Top Story

With a month to go before U.S. voters head to the polls on Nov. 4, the presidential candidates are taking off the proverbial gloves. Or as Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan expressed her fear on Sunday's Meet the Press, "They're going to open up the gates of hell."

Hoping to change the dynamics of a race that increasingly favors Barack Obama, John McCain and his campaign have resumed making the case that Obama is untrustworthy and has dubious past associations.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, said Saturday that Obama has been "palling around with terrorists," pointing to a New York Times story that actually downplays Obama's ties with 1960s radical Bill Ayers.

Obama, who appears to have associated with Ayers in Chicago but not been especially friendly, called the attacks "smears" and promised to keep focusing on the economy. Meanwhile, his campaign has been hitting McCain hard on healthcare and released a tough ad attacking McCain as "erratic" and "out of touch" on economic issues. His campaign will also reportedly dredge up McCain's involvement in the "Keating Five" scandal.

Global Economy

As Europe's financial crisis deepens, Europe's top leaders are taking independent action to save major banks. Tyler Cowen comments.

The passage Friday of the U.S. bailout plan doesn't appear of have calmed the world's stock markets. Stocks plunged sharply today in Europe and Asia.

Americas

More U.S. bank failures are on the way.

Business is booming at a Mexico City boutique selling bulletproof clothing.

Brazil's local elections are a mixed bag for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Asia

Kim Jong Il appeared in public, according to the North Korean state press.

At least 33 people were killed in fighting in northeast India.

China is upset about the United States' selling $6 billion in weaponry to Taiwan.

Middle East and Africa

Michael Gordon looks at the U.S. presidential candidates' divergent goals in Iraq.

Saudi Arabia recently hosted peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Britain's top general in Afghanistan approves.

Sudan fires back at criticism from Sarah Palin and Joe Biden.

Europe and the Caucasus

Russian troops have begun dismantling checkpoints in the buffer zone surrounding South Ossetia.

From 2010 to 2015, the United States will have to rely on Russia to get its astronauts to the International Space Station.

The credit crisis is hitting Iceland especially hard.

Today's Agenda

The U.S. Supreme Court begins its new term.

Three Europeans have won the Nobel Prize in medicine. Later this week: physics, chemistry, and peace.

The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform holds a hearing on Lehman Brothers' collapse.

"Miss C" writes to economist Tim Harford:

Dear Economist: Should I take Lehman’s collapse lying down?

I work as an escort in Canary Wharf. I wonder if you might have some sound business advice on how workers in my industry should tackle the sudden drop in demand following the collapse of Lehman Brothers?

It's anecdotal, but this would appear to contradict Sudhir Venkatesh's theory.

What's on your minds?

An overview of Ground Zero on Oct. 2 in New York City. The owners of the World Trade Center site have announced that the World Trade Center memorial can be opened on Sept. 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack. It was also revealed in a 70-page report on Ground Zero's tortured rebuilding process that the rail hub will cost $3.2 billion, $700 million more than planned, and will not open until at least 2014.

The Freedom Tower won't be finished until the end of 2013.