Economics Update

If there is any major difference between the US and the European response to the financial crisis, it is that the Europeans have their sh$# together relative to the US.

Britain was already taking equity stocks in banks this morning, and any sensible action by the Treasury department still appears to be weeks away, so it's not surprising that the dollar is down relative to European currencies.

It is a vote on the confidence that investors have in the relative competencies of the governments involved.

Or maybe it's the fact that the markets realize that the foreign exchange markets are subject to supply and demand too, and with the central banks of the industrialized world are shoveling dollars out their doors, with the Fed being the most aggressive.

I think that the goal was to lower interbank lending rates, which it appears to have done for a while, at least.

It appears that the markets are still seeing a recession, as commodities are generally down though oil ended up, above $80/bbl, today.

The bit of disturbing news is that it appears that the Treasury is
using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $40 billion in junk mortgage securities, which is the wrong thing to do.

It's why the even the knuckle draggers at the White House are moving from buying the sh#$pile to buying the banks that need recapitalization.

This is what the Swedes did, though they added a lot of F&^% you to bank management that we are unfortunately leaving out.