Economics Update

Scary Economic Pic of the Day Courtesy of Brad Delong
And, yes, the really bad line is right now

The first bit of news is kind of "inside Baseball," with
the central banks of the US, UK, EU, and Switzerland agreeing to currency swaps totaling $285 billion with each other.

Basically this means the banks can borrow that amount from each other in various currencies and then use it to stabilize their currencies.

Truth be told, I have no clue as to what it means, except that there have been rumblings that the Swiss are near a deflationary spiral, and might want to depress the CHF to forestall that.

Since it looks like commodities prices are down significantly, most notably copper and oil over the past 6 months or so, the worries about deflation are not just an abstract concept here.

It also looks like Canada is moving toward quantitative easing (printing money) which is pushing the Loonie down, and the dollar rose against other currencies as well, as people moved into a perceived safe haven.