KFI-AM 640 LA Sunday 20 July

"Murphy's Law is often misinterpreted," Nick Spark, the author of A History of Murphy's Law, told me. "The point is to look ahead and predict what could go wrong, and then work to prevent these outcomes."

705P PT: John Authers, Financial Times, "The Short View," re the bear market, re the extreme risk to banks, re the Fannie Mae Freddie Mac bailout, re worldwide inflation in food and energy create worldwide instability.  With Craig Unger, Vanity Fair, co-host.

720P: Jodi Schneider, Congressional Quarterly, re Fannie and Freddie and Chris and Barney, the slowdown with objections by Republicans; re Pelosi and drilling, re another stimulus package?

735P: Professional Roundtable with Laura Meckler, WSJ, and Larry Johnson, No Quarter, and Craig Unger, Vanity Fair.  Re Obama refines Iraq and Afghanistan.  Re McCain and can he spell the word stagflation?   McCain: "We have succeeded in Iraq."

750P  Continuing re Obama goes to Europe with all media, McCain stays home boosts Detroit.   McCain with Phil Gramm, and is Gramm under a cloud because of UBS?  Is there a worse combo than lobbyist banker? 

805P:  Professional Roundtable John Fund, WSJ, and Monica Crowley, the McLoughlin Group, with Craig Unger.  Re Al Gore and the carbon tax, the politics of want, worldwide energy panic.  Re Al Gore: "I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously.  We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change."

820P: Re the entire remaining and still paid TV News biz goes to Europe with Obama along with blogging tyros.  Re Chauncey Gardner goes to Europe.  "Life is a state of mind."  "It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Senator McCain on important economic issues facing the country," Phil Gramm said, quitting the McCain campaign, late Friday July 18. 

835P: Steve Cohen, NYU, re Russia rising and the new cold war, re Medvedev at the G-8, re Russia warnings on NATO ad the missile shield.  "What must be done, however, is clear enough. Because the new cold war began in Washington, steps toward ending it also have to begin in Washington. Two are especially urgent, for reasons also explained in the article:  A US recognition that post-Soviet Russia is not a defeated supplicant or American client state, as seems to have been the prevailing view since 1991, but, a fully sovereign nation at home with legitimate national interests abroad equal to our own.  An immediate end to the reckless expansion of NATO around Russia's borders."

850P: continued with Cohen, re Russia vs. Georgia, re Russia vs. Britain and the Litvinenko Affair.

905P:  Robert Zimmerman, author, re ancient oceans on Mars, re water on the moon, re Mars Pheonix Lander scratches the Mars pole, re the triple NEO.

920P:  Andrew Batson, WSJ, re inflation in China unchecked by the Beijing leadership, re the increasing patches to force banks not to make loans; re threat of price instability.

935P: Joe Alexander, author, "Through the Wheat," The Marines in World War One."

955P: Exeunt: Lou-Ann Hammond Carlist.com re Japanese alternative engine development, re GM failure