Economics Update

Well, the Employment Trends Index is down again. That 11 down over the past 12 months.

In energy, oil prices briefly brok $140/bbl on the downside before settling at $141.37, but the price of retail gasoline continues upward unabated.

Unsurprisingly, the dollar strengthened today, though I am unclear why. The fundamentals underlying the dollar, trade and budget deficits, would seem to point further down.

I wonder what happens when we run out of Dutch boys' fingers to put in the levee.^*

Meanwhile, I think that all those folks who said that it was only residential real estate that was crashing are now desperately trying to find their happy place, because we just saw the the worst Q2 in commercial rentals in 30 years.

^*No, I'm not going there.