Not a great week for yours truly to take a European vacation.

Not only is it the Final Four and the start of baseball, but it is a week with an industry conference in Holland. Oh, and the US's deadline to propose a settlement to Antigua in the WTO dispute is... today.

Finaly, the UIGEA is finally receiving the Congressional hearings it never rightfully received when the bill was hijacked through the process in 1996.

Naturally, the good news is that these hearings will give the banks an opportunity to explain what a dogpile the UIGEA is from a practical standpoint.

The bad news is that this might also give the right-wing nutsacks a chance to further tweak the bill to ease the financial industry's complaints, while making the bill stronger.

So don't get your hopes up just yet.

I'll be trying to follow this story.

The action on the hill starts Tuesday.