In this planetary meltdown, protectionism is always a possibility — especially when Barack Obama's stimulus plan reeks of "Buy American."

Obama's trying to assure the world that he's not a protectionist. Speaking in Canada, in his first foreign trip, Obama said, according to the Wall Street Journal:

That's fine, but you can be sure that Congress members, playing on their constituents' fears, will posture protectionism till the jobs come home — which they won't.

As if isolationist trade policies would even work these days. If you want to see how fatally connected we are to the rest of the planet, turn to the BBC's "Global downturn: In graphics," perfect for your supposedly short attention span. Above is just part of the presentation.

(Hope the designers in the dead-tree industry don't run short of red ink in the next several years. That's no problem for the rest of us — my favorite tone is the traditional HTML red of #FF0000.)

If words are your pick of poisons, then read about the latest business casualty: Saab. The Wall Street Journal's version: "GM's Saab Unit Applies for Creditor Protection."

Saabs handle better than GM's vehicles, but that doesn't mean the Swedish cars can get out of Detroit before they run out of gas. The WSJ story notes that it may be tough for Saab to save itself under Swedish rules and regs: