Back in late April, financial analysts began warning that the next shoe to drop would be the nation's commercial real-estate market. Well consider that shoe dropped. From the Dayton Business Journal:

Delinquencies on commercial mortgage backed securities soared $10 billion in June, hitting a 12-month high of almost $29 billion, according to Realpoint Research.

California led the nation with the highest amount of delinquent loans, closely followed by Texas and Florida.

Late loans across the country are up an "astounding" 585 percent from a year ago when just $4 billion were delinquent, reported the Horsham, Pa.-based research firm. The low point for delinquency was March 2007 when $2 billion was delinquent.

Thousands of commercial mortgages valued at hundreds of billions of dollars are fast approaching their renewal date. By some estimates, two out of every three will no longer meet the original loan conditions and won't be able to refinance. And with prices for commercial properties expected to plunge, a vicious cycle may unfold much as it has in the nation's housing market.

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Thousands of angry citizens have joined noisy weekly protests against the government's handling of the economy, clattering pots and kitchen utensils in what some commentators called the "Saucepan Revolution."

A cacerolazo in Reykjavik? Not surprising given the depths to which Iceland has been plunged. Iceland has been mired in crisis since late September, when the country's three largest banks collapsed under the weight of debts (more on 'securitization' below the fold) amassed during years of rapid expansion. The value of the country's krona currency has plummeted over 30%, hitting many Icelanders who took out special loans denoted in foreign currencies for new homes and cars during the boom years. In addition, Iceland must repay billions of dollars to Dutch and British citizens who held accounts with subsidiaries of collapsed Icelandic banks. Prime Minister Geir Haarde's government attempted to combat the crisis by nationalizing the banks and negotiating about $10 billion in bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund and from a number of countries, including other Nordics, Russia and the United Kingdom. Still, economists expect the Icelandic economy to contract 9.6%. Life for an Icelander may yet again be just "salted fish". The above clip is from the second day of the biggest protests against the government in Iceland since 1949 when people protested against Iceland joining NATO.

A cacerolazo (cacerola is Spanish for pot) is a form of popular street protest and demonstrations in Latin America which consists in a group of people creating noise by banging pots, pans and other utensils in order to call attention to political and social grievances. Cacerolazos date back to Salvador Allende's Chile when housewives took the streets of Santiago and other major Chilean cities to protest stagflation and severe shortages in 1970-1973. The empty pots weren't good for anything else. The practice remains fairly common in Latin America and has spread elsewhere. Cacerolazos erupted last Spring when Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner attempted to raise export tariffs on a variety of agricultural commodities setting off six months worth of political and social unrest in the South American country. Now cacerolazos have come to Reykjavik.

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