Economics Update

Will the last entity leaving making cars in the US please turn off the lights?

Toyota's U.S. sales are down 39.8% to 109,583 units in February - MarketWatch, Ford and GM fell 48.2% and 51.6%, and Chrysler fell 44%.

In real estate, pending home sales fell, but realtors are hawking "affordability," because, well, otherwise they would have nothing to hawk at all.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is rolling out its Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), a lending facility geared toward business, auto, and consumer loans.

It's buying more more sh%$pile from desperate people, but they have decided that they will ignore the compensation limits, even though some of the money from the $700 billion dollar bailout fund.

Bastards.

We also have some mixed signals with recession indicators, with a record number of cargo ships idle, but over the road trucking showing a slight bump.

Oil is above $41/bbl, and the dollar is a bit weaker, largely on the fact that Australia has not dropped its rates.