Here's what we're following this morning:

Dutch government close to collapse - Wall Street Journal | And it's all due to austerity measures.

Disappearing net names hint at Amazon data center expansion - Wired | Amazon will surely own more than 1% of the Internet once everything is said and done.

A fragile and fickle recovery - VoxEU | The world economy continues to meander with no clear sense of direction.

America's Export-Import Bank is tapped out - Bruce Krasting | It's borrowing authority doesn't show on the federal balance sheet; it may have already reached it's $100 billion limit; and now the administration has requested a 40% increase in the bank's borrowing authority.

Another weird incident involving possibly bogus securities in Italy - Bloomberg via Cryptogon | US securities with a $1.5 billion nominal and CDs for about 1,000 tons of gold?  Nah, nothing wrong here.

Hollande garners 28.4% of the first French vote - Zero Hedge, Belgian Le Soir, Le Figaro, France24.com | What happens with a final victory for Hollande?  Check out the results matrix here.  Think there can't or won't be a huge increase in taxes and a huge drop in any possibility of austerity measures and/or prudent debt management?  Whatever.

US may use "military means to defend Afghanistan" until 2024 - RT | This story will be developed in all non-US news markets; don't expect to hear much more about it here in the States.

Currency wars: gold, QE, and the economy - Future Money Trends via Jesse's Cafe Americain

Chesapeake's CEO doesn't see why he should have told a bunch of pesky shareholders about borrowing $1 billion against company assets - Dealbreaker

Happy birthday, Iggy Pop - Dangerous Minds | When your mother and Iggy Pop share a birthday, the birthday dinners are liable to get a little out of hand.