As always, I have a lot of links on Monday. Three or four stories have dominated the news in each market for the past week. In the US, it is about either JPMorgan Chase's escalating losses, Facebook's IPO or the general aimlessness of the market. In Europe, the dual stories are Greece and Spain. In Greece, the talk is of an imminent exit from the eurozone, while in Spain the question revolves around Spanish bank insolvency. Other news outside of the G8 has been pushed to the side

I have written quite a few posts highlighting the statements made by Herbert Hoover during his US presidency as he struggled with the economic contraction of the Great Depression. The general tenor of Hoover's comments and actions goes to redoubling efforts toward balancing the federal budget in order to bring back the fiscal discipline that Hoover felt was proper irrespective of the macro environment and that Hoover also believed would support the US dollar.

In the past, some commenters have expressed doubt about Hoover's deficit hawk bona fides.