Comment: Well, I'm in Europe, center of the Netherlands

near the town of Utrecht. Things haven't changed as much as they did in the States yet, but you already see stores struggling, the big sell-out started after Christmas. MediaMarkt, a giant German electronics-store, sells everything without sales taxes, Philips (electronics) and ING (bank) cut tens of thousands of jobs just this monday.

It's very cold in Holland this winter. We've had our first real frost period since 1997, and there are even talks about an Elfstedentocht (famous Frisian ice skating tour). The cold, dry air, the gusty winds, it all reminds everyone that times are feeble at the least. People are starting to wake up, half of my family, colleagues and friends can't make ends meet anymore. All our government does is give more billions of our money to big banks - 55 billion dollars just yesterday, about 300 billion in total now.

I think we can see the first wave of massive job cuts in mid February here. It's going down the drain fast, I get scared just reading the newspaper. Our vice-president even calls for 'a fresh Dutch nationalism', which would make his so-called democratic socialist workers party essentially the NSDAP. He meant it in the bad way, by forcing us to believe in our country when everything we ever believed in and loved falls apart.

>Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus to make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -Winston Smith<