Oil closes above $81.52 per barrel

[autofixer]

Did anyone notice that oil closed at a record high of $81.52 per barrel today and is above $82 in after hours trading? The US dollar is in free fall and the Fed just cut the Prime rate .50 basis points in a drastic move to stave off the coming recession. This rate cut is further undermining the US dollar and is putting our economy in severe peril. You notice I have not even mentioned the housing bubble blowing up and the credit market meltdown. All of this amounts to the fact that our economy is near collapse and we are only interested in OJ. It is my opinion that St. Nics' award, et al, may all be moot in the near future as we may all be on the street. What does anyone else out there think? It is looking the bleakest I have ever seen it, out there in economic land.

 

[CynicalResAgent]

I think the Dow was up 335 points, NASDAQ up 70 and S&P was up 43 and some change. Someones still making money, just proably isn't any of the people posting on this board though.

 

[aquagreen73s]

http://www.jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com

 

[local 12 proud]

Excellent program on Glen Beck tonight addressing the house of cards which is about to fall!

 

[Gilding the Lily]

It is simply a market correction that occurs in a cycle. If you (or your company) did not plan for the consequences -- or avoid the over-spending of so-call "free money" altogether -- then this correction will merely be a nuisance. In some instances, these types of corrections are where people and companies build their wealth.

Unfortunately, for many companies and those american families that have access to the so-called "free money" (middle class families that are wealthy enough to attract sizeable loans, but not wealthy enough to weather a market hiccup) the illusions of grandeur was too much of a temptation. Now, politicians will get in a cue behind the nearest microphone so that they can have their 15-minutes of fame to suggest to the american people that we must save those in the middle class who knowingly walked into the ditch that they now find themselves. Poppycock!

 

[Smitty]

the sky is falling and soon apes will again rule the world

 

[local 12 proud]

the sky is falling and soon apes will again rule the world

Hey I know, lets print more money!

 

[local 12 proud]

More good news for the US Dollar.

Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.... "This is a very dangerous situation for the dollar," said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas.

Jim Rogers, the commodity king and former partner of George Soros, said the Federal Reserve was playing with fire by cutting rates so aggressively at a time when the dollar was already under pressure.

The risk is that flight from US bonds could push up the long-term yields that form the base price of credit for most mortgages, the driving the property market into even deeper crisis.

"If Ben Bernanke starts running those printing presses even faster than he's already doing, we are going to have a serious recession. The dollar's going to collapse, the bond market's going to collapse. There's going to be a lot of problems," he said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtm...bcnsaudi119.xml

 

[Gilding the Lily]

Yeah, there may be a country or two that drops the dollar because of the current credit melt down, but many countries cannot drop the dollar without creating out-of control inflation... which is the very reason why Saudi Arabia has decided not to match our interest rate cut.

The bright side of all this is that foreign companies that export to the U.S. tend to lower their prices when their local currency rises against the dollar. This should stablize the prices of a large portion of our goods... until, atleast, those companies meet the edge of their profit margin.

 

[local 12 proud]

Yea can I borrow those rosy glasses of yours

``It seems like the world is dumping the dollar,'' said John Taylor, chairman of FX Concepts Inc., a New York firm that manages $12.1 billion in currencies. ``We have sold the dollar and will continue to do so. My preference is to sell the dollar against European currencies.''

Greenspan on Recession

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said in an interview yesterday the odds of a recession remain ``somewhat more'' than one in three, even after this week's cut in interest rates, with home prices likely to drop further and hurt consumer spending.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...mp;refer=europe

 

[Gilding the Lily]

Yea can I borrow those rosy glasses of yours

Sure. I would rather wear those than doom and gloom glasses. I hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. (i.e. shorting, currency exchange, yet big time bond buying).

A new Federal Reserve study suggests foreign companies that export to the U.S. tend to lower their prices when their local currency rises against the dollar.

The study’s findings suggest the dollar’s slide, which has accelerated since the Fed cut interest rates half a percentage point Tuesday, may not have a dramatic impact on U.S. inflation, with one caveat (caveat is what I mentioned in my above post about profit margins).

The study examined how the U.S.’s trading partners adjust the prices of their exports when their currencies rise or fall against the dollar. The study, posted this week on the Fed’s Web site, found that increasingly, they tend to lower their prices when their currency rises against the dollar. That would tend to keep their prices constant in dollar terms in the U.S. market, minimizing their loss of market share.

Fed Study: Dollar’s Impact on Prices in U.S. Is Muted

 

[local 12 proud]

Sure. I would rather wear those than doom and gloom glasses. I hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Come now frog pad...(now that is some funny sh!t) its not doom and gloom, its just called living in the here and now with your head above the sand dunes.

Hey, nothing wrong with preparing for the worst...Bring It!

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

Come now frog pad...(now that is some funny sh!t) its not doom and gloom, its just called living in the here and now with your head above the sand dunes.

Hey, nothing wrong with preparing for the worst...Bring It!

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Well "12" If the "SHET hits the fan BIG TIME $$$", you'll be on the first flt. out to FAI, to start panning for Gold, and a lot of Hunting/Log cabin etc.

 

[local 12 proud]

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Well "12" If the "SHET hits the fan BIG TIME $$$", you'll be on the first flt. out to FAI, to start panning for Gold, and a lot of Hunting/Log cabin etc.

Bears, I left for that place a long time ago even though bodily Im still in this Rat Race in the lower 48!

But you nailed it friend, I planned for that Scenario some years back. 😉

 

[local 12 proud]

I would rather wear those than doom and gloom glasses.

It is simply a market correction that occurs in a cycle.

Well then here's some more rosy news to get that bounce in your step.

Das is pretty droll for a math whiz, but his message is dead serious. He thinks we're on the verge of a bear market of epic proportions.

The cause: Massive levels of debt underlying the world economy system are about to unwind in a profound and persistent way.

Like an ex-mobster turning state's witness, Das has turned his back on his old pals in the derivatives biz to warn anyone who will listen -- mostly banks and hedge funds that pay him consulting fees -- that the jig is up.

Rather than joining the crowd that blames the mess on American slobs who took on more mortgage debt than they could afford and have endangered the world by stiffing lenders, he points a finger at three parties: regulators who stood by as U.S. banks developed ingenious but dangerous ways of shifting trillions of dollars of credit risk off their balance sheets and into the hands of unsophisticated foreign investors; hedge and pension fund managers who gorged on high-yield debt instruments they didn't understand; and financial engineers who built towers of "securitized" debt with math models that were fundamentally flawed.

"Defaulting middle-class U.S. homeowners are blamed, but they are merely a pawn in the game," he says. "Those loans were invented so that hedge funds would have high-yield debt to buy."

😱

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Inves...ket.aspx?page=1