You have to wonder.

First up is of course the 900lb Gorilla, GM, who reported earnings. To say that this report was bad would be the understatement of the quarter. Not only were the firm's North American auto sales bad but their mortgage unit lost a billion dollars. That's with a "b". Gee, is that good? Guess not - but the most recent bid is only down 24 cents premarket. Oh, they weren't the only one - BMW's profit fell 38% last quarter.

Next, we have one of my favorite whipping boys, Countrywide. The man-with-the-ugly-suits-and-ties has decided to take a pay cut. I suppose after you've siphoned off a half billion in compensation over the last few years, you can afford to slow down a bit. Somewhere in there is the real story - that corporate boardrooms remain incredible dens of inequity, blackmail and stupidity, allowed to continue only because stockholders have about as much of an attention span as a classroom full of sugar-spazzed 4 year olds.

Oh, and it doesn't stop there. Last night DowJones posted a new story about a "summit" on The Hill at which Mr. Dodd, among others, asked lenders to agree to a "principles". Among the companies that said "go screw Mr. Dodd"? Countrywide. Notably, Wells Fargo also was included in the "bite me" list. Hmmmm...

Curiously, about three hours later, the story was updated - with the only material change being that the statement that Countrywide and Wells Fargo had refused to sign on disappeared from the updated release!

One has to wonder exactly why "naming names" suddenly became unpopular. Note that there was no correction - so it is logical to assume that the original report wasn't an error.

Non-farm productivity up 1.7%, revised up. Unit labor costs plunged - up 0.6%. Jobless claims down a bit. Minor bounce on the futures, but the big number is tomorrow.

More than 10 seconds of thought explains this one. Business is poor, so The Boss squeezes the employees. Either put out more for the same wage or........ "You're FIRED!" Yep. Not hard to figure this one out. Is this is a good number? I don't know - it might hold. After all, if you're the employee under that jackboot and you quit, can you get another job? That's really the kicker.

Bond investors are starting to get upset. Why? Well, some of them are getting very nervous about this whole "mortgage mess." As well they should. This whole rating agency thing is starting to stink like dead fish. The guys who pay for this service are of course the issuers, and Countrywide made clear that it is trying to "convince" ratings agencies to see things their way (said on their conference call.) Yee who pays the piper usually calls the tune, and that's not so good when the guy doing the buying is the one who wants to be protected here. I'm not quite sure there is a fix for this - deal flow is pretty much everything to the ratings guys as well...... when a market gets to "the more you do, the more you make", and that's the only thing that matters, inevitably a good number of bad deals will get done.

Finally, to finish this morning off we have two more articles illustrating the depravity of the banking industry in stark relief. First we have The Quams, who without argument should have never been offered their mortgage.

And to close it off, we have companies that want to loan money to lawbreakers. And they're not little banks either. JP Morgan, Citigroup, Fifth Third and Wells Fargo.

I think we need to start locking up some bank executives for this last one.

What's next? Special loan programs for crack dealers? After all, they make a lot of money, don't they? They certainly should be able to afford that house - up until they get busted, that is.

Enjoy today - look like we're headed for a mixed open. The market still feels darn frothy, and as noted last night, we're right up against the top of the channels. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a sideways market today, waiting for the economic data tomorrow morning.

Have a profitable day!