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smuggled out
Mar. 8th, 2008 12:58 am
CLASSIFIED/PRELIMINARY
many banthans lost their lives smuggling this out of a cascadian design lab
Mar. 8th, 2008
CLASSIFIED/PRELIMINARY
many banthans lost their lives smuggling this out of a cascadian design lab
FireDogLake has an action item against the FISA sell-out in the House which got floated on Friday; there's apparently some suggestion that it's not a done deal. The short form is:
Go, and do.
You know what to do gang: hit the phones and the faxes and let Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Reyes and tell them no compromise on telecom immunity, no watering down the Fourth Amendment, and no capitulation.Here's Glenn's Friday comment about the situation, and how he thinks it'll go down.
Speaker Pelosi:
Phone: (202) 225-4965
Fax: (202) 225-8259
Rep. Reyes:
Phone: (202) 225-4831
Fax: (202) 225-2016
Go, and do.
The news from Friday
Mar. 8th, 2008 10:50 amOil peaked at US$106.54 before falling to close at "only" US$105.15. A lot of people blamed this on dollar fall, but if so, that's a delayed reaction because the dollar actually rose a bit yesterday. (If you missed it, incidentally, OPEC decided not to boost production going into what's called the "driving season." These are, by the way, record highs in both raw and inflation-adjusted dollars. Also, adjusting the price down to move the dollar 'way higher back to more traditional ranges, it's still over US$85/barrel. At these prices, one has to question motives - or capabilities.)
The dollar's fall - or more correctly, the Euro's rise in particular - is causing no end of headaches for the Euro. Japan already said it would step in to prevent further rise of the Yen against the dollar. That's going to take some work.
Unemployment statistics came out; Mish calls it an unmitigated disaster, noting the 644,000 job-seekers removed from the pool and the fundamentally transrational addition of 144,000 jobs to the market through birth/death model. Market Ticker notes that there has never been "two negative jobs prints in a row outside of a recession. This is a 100% accurate indicator from a historical perspective."
Brad Setser at RGE Monitor talks about the extensive deleveraging going on in credit markets - c.f. the mass selloff at Carlyle Capital, which appears to be augering in, and which he talks about here.
Finally, misc. noise: Kansas City Federal Reserve president Thomas Hoenig says too much reliance is being put on interest rate policy, possibly related to the TAF boost to US$100B and possibly an indicator of a reluctance to lower rates further given the drop in the dollar; auto loans are falling apart at least as badly as housing loans - and I hear anecdotal evidence that used-car prices are plummeting accordingly; and Fil Zucchi asks whether the US is on the "Doorstep of Disaster."
The dollar's fall - or more correctly, the Euro's rise in particular - is causing no end of headaches for the Euro. Japan already said it would step in to prevent further rise of the Yen against the dollar. That's going to take some work.
Unemployment statistics came out; Mish calls it an unmitigated disaster, noting the 644,000 job-seekers removed from the pool and the fundamentally transrational addition of 144,000 jobs to the market through birth/death model. Market Ticker notes that there has never been "two negative jobs prints in a row outside of a recession. This is a 100% accurate indicator from a historical perspective."
Brad Setser at RGE Monitor talks about the extensive deleveraging going on in credit markets - c.f. the mass selloff at Carlyle Capital, which appears to be augering in, and which he talks about here.
Finally, misc. noise: Kansas City Federal Reserve president Thomas Hoenig says too much reliance is being put on interest rate policy, possibly related to the TAF boost to US$100B and possibly an indicator of a reluctance to lower rates further given the drop in the dollar; auto loans are falling apart at least as badly as housing loans - and I hear anecdotal evidence that used-car prices are plummeting accordingly; and Fil Zucchi asks whether the US is on the "Doorstep of Disaster."
