SAR #9295

Nearly one in five workers, aren't.

What Goes Up: The dollar is at a 14 month low against the euro, oil is at a 14 month high in dollars. How high does oil have to go before the economy plunges again?

Update: The media are reporting that a new survey shows that a "clear majority" of Americans now support a government-run public insurance plan as a competitor to private insurance companies. What's new is the reporting. What's inaccurate is the suggestion that Americans previously did not support the public option. They did, but the media were too busy buying the Republican noise to do any actual reporting. Luckily the survey issued a press release.

Let Them Eat Cake: Goldman Sachs man in London, Lord Griffith of Fforesfatch, says the poor should accept that the rich getting richer is good for everyone because some crumbs may falloff the table. Well, that's not quite what he said, but it's close.

Kiss It and Make It Better: The administration is going to order the Treasury and Fannie & Freddie to purchase housing bonds issued by state and local agencies that provide mortgages to first-time and lower-income home buyers and enable the development or rehabilitation of rental properties. Officials declined to put a price tag on the program, which is their way of shrugging.

Short Listed: The National Retail Federation expects consumers to spend about 3.2% less per family this bargain hunting holiday season.

Coincidence: A new study says one in six Americans lives in poverty. Yesterday it was reported that one in six American workers was unemployed or underemployed. There were only a handful of stories today about Wall Street bonuses.

Leavesdropping: Not only do the walls have little ears, it turns out the trees do, too. Young sparrows learn what and how to sing by eavesdropping on adult conversations.

Nailed It: Niall Ferguson, economic historian and all-round gadfly, says the dollar is doomed and the Chinese are dumping it. This may devalue their dollar holdings, but it would increase the value of all their hard assets and those they've been buying up around the world. He also sees China's international trade surplus quickly going away as internal consumption rises.

With Comment: Hank Paulson held a secret meeting with Goldman Sachs board of directors in Moscow. Points for listing the greatest number of ways (a) this is wrong and (b) expected.

CREeping Down: Commercial real estate prices have now declined 41% since the October '07 peak. But some see “a deceleration in the rate of decline.” Those folks are called optimists. Or real estate agents.

Upon a Star... Mexico says it has found the petroleum fountain of youth and from now on it can keep pumping 2.5 million barrels a day for years and years and years. Don't bring up things like physics and petroleum geology and all that science stuff.

Theory of Everything: The US financial crisis was caused by Wall Street's greed, Ponzi schemes and frauds, assisted by their political accomplices, and enabled by a willing media. The confessional is now open.

Down the Drain: Pilots flying over the Alaskan back-country have noted for some time that shallow lakes and ponds and marshes are shrinking in size, some simply disappearing but didn't know why. In a state that is about 50% wetlands, this is disconcerting. Global warming, of course, is to blame – now that Palin is no longer governor. The permafrost acted to retain the water above it; as the permafrost becomes less perma...

Porn O'Graph: Laid off doesn't mean what you hope.