If Cuba's Fidel Castro is America's favorite Latin American bête noire, then Venezuela's Hugo Chavez qualifies as Washington's reigning Prince of Darkness.

In 1960, Fidel Castro nationalized US business interests without compensation, bringing down on impoverished benighted country 51 years of sanctions that continue to the present day.

The first commercial utility solar project in India received a $10 million investment from a World Bank affiliate as the international lending agency steps up its support of renewable energy in emerging economies.

The World Bank Group has pledged to increase its investments in alternative energies by more than 20% a year. In fiscal 2009, the group boosted support by 24% to $3.3 billion.

The “credit crisis” caused banks to write down about $1.5 trillion, but that is the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The real consequence of the post-bubble deleveraging is the vaporizing of about $26 trillion in stock-market value worldwide, or about half of the valuation at the 2007 peak. The rally in global equities from the 2002 low obviously relied on an artificial abundance of liquidity.

As Grant’s Interest Rate Observer has been known to say, “We wrote it. Did you read it?”