Is the government creating another subprime-mortgage bubble?

The first time around, the three-headed federal serpent – the Bush administration, the Treasury Department and the U.S. Federal Reserve – used Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) to “legitimize” trillions of dollars worth of toxic financial waste known as subprime mortgages.

The result was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression – a mess that was global in nature.

And we’re now headed for a repeat performance.

Some of the players may have changed since the first subprime-mortgage crisis, but the game apparently remains the same. With banks currently unwilling to lend, the new federal triumvirate of the Obama administration, the Treasury and the Fed are trying to inflate the moribund U.S. housing market. This time around, however, the FHA is the weapon of choice.

Obama & Co. are making an all-or-nothing bet that the

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Kazakhstan was once a nation of nomads wandering vast steppes. They herded cattle, goats and camels. On the country’s western edge lies the Caspian Sea. Towns grew up along the shore there, hauling in catches of sturgeon and black caviar.

But otherwise, Kazakhstan was an empty desert. Even in the days of the old Silk Road, traders would skirt Kazakhstan’s southern border rather than try to cross that hell of a desert. It was remote. Desolate. The Soviets used parts of the northeast to test nuclear weapons.

The Aral Sea, site of one of the greatest environmental disasters ever, is in Kazakhstan. A century ago, carp, perch, caviar-bloated sturgeon and much more filled the Aral Sea. Fisherman hauled hundreds of tons of fish per year, fed themselves and loaded trains full of fish headed to Moscow. Then the Communists had some harebrained scheme to use the water for irrigation.

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Philip Morris International (PMI) entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of privately owned Colombian cigarette manufacturer Productora Tabacalera de Colombia, Protabaco Ltda. (Protabaco), for $452 million. Protabaco is the second largest tobacco company in Colombia, with an estimated volume of 6.1 billion cigarettes and an approximate market share of 31.8% in 2008, with leading brands such as Mustang, Premier and President. The acquisition is believed to be a strategic business fit, in order to build on the company’s business in Columbia. The deal is expected to be marginally accretive to PM’s earnings and is expected to close in the second half of 2009. However, final approvals are still pending. In 2005, the company had acquired another Columbian company, Compañía Colombiana de Tabaco S.A. (Coltabaco). In addition, with increasing regulation over tobacco, there has been a shift towards smoke free tobacco products ...