Cheat Sheet

Given that unbridled borrowing got the United States economy into this mess, the government’s solution—“Spend without limit. Print money today, fret about the consequences tomorrow,” as today’s New York Times puts it—may seem a little off. Foreign investors may start to worry about the Treasury’s ability to cover its debt and stop depositing their savings there, which “would force the Treasury to pay higher returns to find takers for its debt, increasing interest rates for home- and auto-buyers, for businesses and credit-card holders.” Bailouts only delay the inevitable, according to some economists. “Our standard of living must decline to reflect years of reckless consumption and the disintegration of our industrial base,” says one. “Only by swallowing this tough medicine now will our sick economy ever recover.” Lest that opinion have you fearful, “most economists cast such thinking as recklessly extreme, akin to putting an obese person on a painful diet in the name of long-term health just as they are fighting off a potentially lethal infection.”

Welcome to the belly of the subprime beast: In its investigating of Washington Mutual, The New York Times discovers former mortgage brokers like John D. Parsons, who left his methamphetamine paraphernalia in view of his employees and once gave a mortgage to a mariachi singer who claimed to make six figures and proved his profession by posing for a photograph in his uniform. Another employee was yelled at for calling a bank to check up on a borrower’s savings (nevermind the $145,000 discrepancy). Of course, Parsons and his kind received their orders in their trenches from the office of CEO Kerry Killinger, who collected $88 million in compensation between 2001 and 2007. Washington Mutual was particularly invested in adjustable-rate mortgages—by 2006 they made up 70 percent of the company’s new home loans. JP Morgan bought WaMu in September.

Alexander Nevsky, the prince of Novgorod and Kiev and grand prince of Vladimir, received the most votes in the "Face of Russia," a controversial seven-month contest on state-run Rossia television. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin finished third, with 519,671 votes, while poet Alexander Pushkin finished fourth. A total of more than 50 million votes were cast. In August, with Stalin just ahead of Nicholas II, the last Russian tsar, the tally was thrown out and the voting was restarted.

Despite a boycott by separatist groups, voters in Kashmir turned out in high numbers, with over 60% heading to the polls amid high security. The strong numbers were encouraging signs for the border region, which has been the seat of two of the three wars between India and Pakistan. "I think the large turnout in Kashmir is a vote for democracy and national integration. We are all happy at the turnout, and who wins or loses is a secondary issue," said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who heads India's Congress-ruled government. Five of the seven phases of voting were delayed after the Mumbai attacks. With no clear winner, it is likely a coalition government will emerge, led by the regional National Conference Party. Thankfully, the parties sharing power all agree on one thing. "Both the mainstream Kashmiri parties campaigned on the platform of peace between India and Pakistan and advocated increased cross-border cooperation and connectivity," said Noor Ahmad Baba, professor of political science in the Kashmir University.

Alain Benainous / AP

Talk about striking it rich: Documentary-film director George Scott planned last year to make a movie about Carla Bruni—“a music film about a model who turns into a singer and makes a success of it.” Then, Bruni conducted an open affair with new French president Nicolas Sarkozy, quickly became the country’s new first lady, and—to Scott’s great surprise—still agreed to be his subject. The resulting film, which airs in France on New Year’s Day and in Britain in January (Bruni filmed in both French and English), features the first lady in the presidential Elysée Palace and serenading Sarko. Bruni, whose previous lovers include Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, also dishes on the beginning of her affair with Sarkozy at a dinner party: “There were only eight people and we were seated next to each other and it was instantaneous, immediate . . . I don’t know what he has but he has something very protective that I never found before, maybe because I was much more attracted to artists.”

Six months ago, any investor who turned down the chance to put their money with Bernie Madoff would have been considered crazy. Now the Daily News gossip column is reporting that Madoff may be employing an insanity defense as his excuse for running a roughly $50 Ponzi scheme that has bankrupted investors and charities around the world. “Bernie’s family and his attorneys may argue that, somewhere along the line, he had a mental break,” says a Madoff acquaintance. “They may even say he has a multiple personality disorder.” Madoff's mental state is hard to determine, as his family is doing most of his talking, but he is said to be on high doses of anti-anxiety medication. Top criminal attorney Edward Hayes an insanity defense is Madoff's best bet. “Madoff admitted to his sons that he knew it was a Ponzi scheme. His best defense is making himself essential to discovering where the money is and getting it to the victims.”

A special 'no thanks' to Obama and McCain for waffling on vaccines, but the annual Celebrities and Science Review saves its scorn for Kate Moss, Oprah Winfrey and Demi Moore for claiming one can detoxify with either diet or, in the case of Moore, products such as "highly trained medical leeches".

Those hoping for a Blagojevich courtroom drama featuring, say, Rahm Emanuel yelling “You can’t handle the truth,” will have to put those hopes to rest. The Illinois House committee considering the impeachment of governor Rod Blagojevich rejected his lawyers’ request to subpoena Obama confidantes Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett after U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald asked the committee not to. Fitzgerald said such testimony would interfere with his criminal investigation.

Protesters took to the streets across the Middle East today to register their discontent with Israel's assault on Gaza. From Lebanon to Iran and Yemen to Jordan, tens of thousands of Palestinian supporters staged raucous demonstrations. Violence surfaced in Mosul, Iraq, where a suicide bomber targeted a group of protesters and police fired tear-gas on demonstrators in Beirut to prevent them from reaching the Egyptian Embassy. Egypt has come under fire by fellow Middle Eastern countries for joining Israel in closing its borders with Gaza. Even the normally apathetic residents of Dubai took time from counting their billions to show their support outside of the Palestinian consulate.

Mexico’s drug problems have taken a turn for the, well, beautiful. According to The Guardian, “Mexican politicians were yesterday calling for an investigation into ties between the nation's popular beauty pageants and leading drug cartels.” The calls came after the reigning Miss Sinaloa, Laura Zúñiga Huizar, was arrested with a top trafficker. Mexican officials fear drug dealers have “adopted” performers and may be intervening on their behalves in competitions. The 23-year-old Zúñiga was found in a car with a known drug dealer, six bodyguards, assault rifles, pistols and ammunition clips, 16 cell phones, and about $53,000 in cash.

Paging President Bush: here is what they call a ‘high note’ to end on. The advocacy group Families of Flight 93 is lobbying for the president to seize a land parcel in order for a memorial to be erected before the 10th anniversary of the flight’s crash onto a Pennsylvania field on September 11. Svonavec Inc., owner of the 273-acre land tract holding up the memorial, rejected a $250,000 offer from the Park Service and $750,000 from the Flight 93 group, reports The Washington Post. "When Flight 93 crashed, there wasn't much left, and it created this huge debris field. What was left was our loved ones; it's a cemetery for us. We want to make sure it's not just being tramped across, and that it's protected and preserved,” said Gordon Felt, president of Families of Flight 93 and whose brother Edward died in the crash. The projected cost of the project is $56 million spread across 1,400 acres of land. A third appraisal of the land will be finished by January 5 and the president is currently reviewing the group’s request to seize the parcel by eminent domain.