The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperiling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, “animal spirits” are driving financial events worldwide. “Animal spirits” is the term John Maynard Keynes used in his 1936 book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money to describe emotion or affect which influences human behavior and can be measured in terms of consumer confidence. Trust is also included or produced by “animal spirits”. Several articles and at least two books with a focus on “animal spirits” have been published in 2008 and 2009 as a part of a Keynesian resurgence.

The original passage by Keynes reads:

“Even apart from the instability due to speculation, there is the instability due to the characteristic of human nature that a large proportion of our positive activities depend on spontaneous optimism rather than mathematical expectations, whether moral or hedonistic or economic. Most, probably, of our decisions to do something positive, the full consequences of which will be drawn out over many days to come, can only be taken as the result of animal spirits - a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction, and not as the outcome of a weighted average of quantitative benefits multiplied by quantitative probabilities.”

 ”Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it’s cowardice.”

“They can gas me, but I am famous. I have achieved in one day what it took Robert Kennedy all his life to do. “

“I explain this not for publicity, nor seeking to win an argument of right or wrong, I explain so that the record is clear as to my thinking and motivations in bombing a government installation.”

 V

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A U.S. soldier is in custody after opening fire on his fellow troops Monday, killing five American service members, the U.S. military confirmed.

U.S. Army troops get a safety briefing before departing Camp Liberty, Iraq, in December 2008

The shootings mark the deadliest attack on troops by a fellow service member during Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to U.S. military records.

Three others were wounded in the incident, which happened about 2 p.m. at the U.S. military base, Camp Liberty, in Baghdad, two senior defense officials said.

It is unclear if the shooter was among the wounded, despite earlier reports that he killed himself, an official said. 

“Any time we lose one of our own, it affects us all,” said Col. John Robinson Multi-National Corps - Iraq spokesperson. “Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this terrible tragedy.”

President Obama was shocked and saddened to hear about the incident and planned to discuss the issue with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

“The president’s heart goes out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this horrible tragedy. He was shocked by the news of this incident and will press to ensure that we fully understand what happened at the clinic and that we are doing everything we can to ensure that our men and women in uniform are protected,” Gibbs said.

The incident happened at Camp Liberty’s stress clinic, where U.S. service members are treated for psychological conditions, the sources said.

On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.

The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms: In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers, and the Germans considerably more; in Copenhagen and Oslo; at Karlshorst, near Berlin; in northern Latvia; on the Channel Island of Sark–the German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. More surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany.

The main concern of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of Soviet forces, to keep from being taken prisoner. About 1 million Germans attempted a mass exodus to the West when the fighting in Czechoslovakia ended, but were stopped by the Russians and taken captive. The Russians took approximately 2 million prisoners in the period just before and after the German surrender.

Meanwhile, more than 13,000 British POWs were released and sent back to Great Britain.

Pockets of German-Soviet confrontation would continue into the next day. On May 9, the Soviets would lose 600 more soldiers in Silesia before the Germans finally surrendered. Consequently, V-E Day was not celebrated until the ninth in Moscow, with a radio broadcast salute from Stalin himself: “The age-long struggle of the Slav nations…has ended in victory. Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over.”

*Churchill must be spinning in his grave.