*Stocks having a terrible day

Dow has tumbled more than 400 points at last check - and there's still 90 minutes of trading left in the session. Lots of jitters today about Europe - not surprising if you've paid attention to the bumble-heads in Italy and Greece. Those folks hold the world's financial future in their hands? God help us...

*Felix Salmon picks up on the leadership problem:

Interests aren't aligned at all: everybody wants to push the costs of the crisis onto someone else. And in the past couple of weeks, things have gotten significantly worse: the northerners have started quite explicitly threatening the southerners with a lack of cooperation and the consequent inevitable default if they don't pick up their game. This is a strategy which is almost certain to end badly. It can work in the short term -- but only in the very short term. Because if the markets think there's a serious risk that the Eurozone powers might let Italy fall, then they will simply walk away. And suddenly the entire burden of financing Italy's budget deficit for the foreseeable future will fall on the ECB, Germany, and the rest. Which is a situation which is simply unsustainable.