Worthwhile Reading - Friday the 13th Edition

Read the big four to know capital's fate. Paul Kennedy, FT.

To the victor go the spoils: who answers the phone in the U.S. Treasury? Willem Buiter, FT.

LA port import traffic collapses in February. Calculated Risk.

FDIC collected few insurance fees for a decade. Calculated Risk.

Credit cards are the next credit crunch. Meredith Whitney, WSJ.

Not so easing (wonkish). Paul Krugman, NYT.

Thanks to the Bank it's a crisis; in the Eurozone it's a total catastrophe. Amrose-Evans Pritchard, Telgraph.

QE and the debt-deflationary spiral. Ann Pettifor, Debtonation.

Panics and booms: a lesson from 1897. Rolfe Winkler, Option ARMageddon.

Inflation is better than deflation. John Makin, American Enterprise Institute.
I found Dr. Makin to be the most compelling speaker, as well as the most worried one, at the Cato Institute Monetary conference in November, at which time he was the only panelist concerned that a Japanese-style deflationary episode was a real possibility.