Economics Update

I'm not going to be writing about Geithner's bank bailout plan here, it needs it's own post, but I have some graph pr0n, a little update from last night's Pelosi scary employment graph courtesy of Justin Fox (top) and William Polley.

The first goes back 6 recessions, and the 2nd covers all of the recessions since WWII, which makes a bit busy, but they are at least as scary as last night's graph.

On to the update:

It appears that the Asian economies are melt down down, with Japan's economy is deteriorating in a way that has not been seen in 50 years, China’s exports falling by double digits, the Taiwan dollar and Malaysian Ringgit falling, and the IMF predicting a 4% contraction in the South Korean economy in 2009.

Meanwhile, there is a report that Russia is attempting to restructure its debts, which is a polite way of saying that they are threatening to default.

Meanwhile, Geithner's plan, and the Senate's approval of a stimulus, does appear to be having an effect on the markets, with oil falling, which indicates that the oil traders do not expect to see a rapid economic turn around, and the dollar rising, on the same information.

In this case it appears to be cross purposes, but I think that the reason that the dollar is up is because people realize that the bailout makes US investments more attractive, albeit at taxpayer expense, but that is another post.