That Sucking Noise

Apparently, the confluence of record oil prices, a financial fallout in our primary sector for economic growth for the past decade or so, and creeping inflation is too much for the U.S. Economy to bear. The main indicator of the turbulence, the poor dollar has in the past day tumbled to a new record low against the Euro, as well as for the most part falling back to pre-Clinton exchange rates against other world currencies, notably the Canadian dollar. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernake, one of the masterminds behind this rapid currency devaluation, has signaled that he expect the economy to slow for the rest of the year, and regain momentum in the beginning of 2008. What might be slightly worrisome is that he mentioned that they have not even calculated for even the possibility of a recession. The European Central Bank, for their part, are worried about the potential impact of cheap American exports on the world market, with Bush's new best friend Nicholas Sarkozy going so far as to mention the phrase "trade war." All of this makes me wish that the Fed still published statistics about the growth of money supply.

Oil, on the other hand, is not nearly as interesting, it only hit an amazing high just over $96 per barrel, as opposed to actually eclipsing the $100 price range. Between the price of oil being up 42% since August and "I think the market is due for a correction," I would say that we need to start car pooling more, or perhaps look into public transportation.

In other news, the primary builder for expensive homes in the U.S., Toll Brothers announced that their sales are going into tailspin, bringing up the question of whether the leg that is consumer spending is wobbling... Hopefully, it's only wobbling.

The New York Stock Exchange and most other world indices were pushed down today by poor results in the tech sector.

By far the most worrying aspect of all of this is the mention by Cheng Siwei, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the other mastermind, that the American dollar is losing its status as a world currency.

I hope the managers at brokerages are telling their people to lay off the coke.