Goodness gracious! I sure hope someone got sleep over the weekend, because it seems no one in Washington nor Wall Street did. The House Democrats were busy this weekend planning a second economic stimulus package. Rumor has it that the package would be "somewhat north of 100 billion." While any of us will happily accept money that the government gives us (rather than the other way around for a change), haven't we realized based on the short-lived results from the first economic stimulus package that such packages don't bring any lasting change to the economy? Also this weekend, leaders of 15 European nations - gathered in Paris at an emergency meeting and agreed to a plan to assist troubled banks by adding capital through investment and by guaranteeing inter-bank lending. Early Monday, the British government said it would invest $63 billion into the Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Lloyds TSB to help the banks in crisis pull through. Also on Monday, four central banks, including the Federal Reserve, announced new measures aimed at thawing the credit markets. Provisions include providing unlimited short-term dollar funds at fixed interest rates. We're off to another interesting start to the week! –Lindsay Goodier, Online Editor, OilandGasInvestor.com; www.OilandGasInvestor.com; lgoodier@hartenergy.com