Evidence that the economy has been ground to a fine powder continues to pile up, and today's brought another batch of bad news.

ENGADGET: Recession roundup: Sony warns of $1.7b loss, other companies not doing much better

The latest batch of bad news included a 0.7% fall in Italian GDP during the second quarter, and very weak manufacturing surveys in France and Germany.

ECONOMIST: Buttonwood

After all, even after the relief provided by the first batch, the banks' bad-loan ratio still stands at 22%, according to Guonan Ma and Ben Fung in a recent paper for the Bank for International Settlements.

ECONOMIST: Casino capital