We are officially past the mid way point for 2010, and as of now, we have 90 banks (All 90 banks listed) that have been closed for the year, by the FDIC. Bank closures are nothing new, and were expected, at least by those in the know, however, it gets worse. We had this program called TARP last year that used tax payer money to help out the 'good' banks to get healthy again. Well, that's not going so well, as many banks are missing their payments, and cant make ends meet. As reported by CBS News, (More Banks Are Missing TARP Payments) as of May, 91 banks missed their last scheduled payment, while many have missed more than one.

The problem is far from solved, and in my opinion, has a long way to go.

The BDI, or Baltic Dry Index is one of the less manipulated numbers out there, unlike GDP, Unemployment data, and CPI (Inflation), its much harder to fake. Unlike what the name implies, the index has nothing to do with the 'Baltic' region, yet everything to do with shipping capacity/rate/demand worldwide. Basically, in very simple terms, the higher the number, the more likely we have global growth.

A good interactive chart can be viewed over at Bloomberg.