Why didn't I see these stories until I happened to catch BBC World News?

I am surprised.

1) They say the Carlyle Capital Corporation is collapsed. Some conspiracy folks think its parent (the Carlyle Group) is the cabal that runs the world - many web pages about that sort of thing are on the first page of a Google search. Crazy.

2) And, there is a tent city in California, contributed to in part by the foreclosure boom. (link is to a Reuters video from 2007, so this has been going on for a while.)

The American news I saw today was about oil prices and the dollar against the yen. Oh, and some politician in a scandal with a younger woman.