Literally, Americans are searching for the meaning of socialism. In a year marked by the beginning of the economic crisis in the US, the online edition of the Merrian-Webster dictionary announced that the Word of the Year 2008 was ... bailout. Many of the other words in the list of the ten with the "the highest intensity of lookups on Merriam-Webster Online over the shortest period of time" were related either to the economic crisis and the uncertainty this generates (turmoil, precipice, rogue) and the US presidential election (maverick, bipartisan).

But number three in the list came the word socialism. Merrian-Webster Online claims traffic to their site "now exceeds 125 million individual page views per month", so that means many millions of US citizens are searching for the meaning of socialism. Surely a sign of the times!

Bloody Cheek!

A London city trader who got a£1.32m City bonus on top of his £300,000 salary is suing his employer because he wants more.

Wheeler dealer Mouradian split the total pot of £1.43m in bonuses among his team, awarding just 92% to himself. He is claiming an extra £92,000 from the firm.

 Sir Roger's Jollies

After the MPs expenses scandal in the UK the government here has decided to release MPs expenses claim.

Sir Roger Douglas was paid by the taxpayer 90% of the costs of the airfare to holiday in the UK so that he could visit family. Obviously, Sir Roger believes in generous government welfare for himself and no one else!