Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Bad US Data – Euro Breaks Key 1.50

Key home price index shows record decline

U.S. home prices dropped 8.9 percent in the final quarter of 2007 compared with a year ago, Standard & Poor's said Tuesday, the steepest decline in the 20-year history of its housing index.

After subprime debacle, U.S. wrestles with question of bank bailouts

Over the past two decades, few industries have lobbied more ferociously or effectively than banks to get the government out of its business and to obtain freer rein for "financial innovation."

Greenspan Urges Gulf States To Abandon Dollar

"It [de-pegging] is probably the most useful thing that can be done to stop the increasing influence of foreign assets on the monetary system and therefore the monetary base which is basically the major force in inflationary pressures," Greenspan told the Abu Dhabi Corporate Leadership Forum yesterday.

Foreclosures up 57 percent in the past year

The number of homes facing foreclosure jumped 57 percent in January compared to a year ago, with lenders increasingly forced to take possession of homes they couldn't unload at auctions, a mortgage research firm said Monday.

One in 10 Home Loans Under Water

And one in every five homes is in tax trouble.

World Grain Demand Straining U.S. Supply

Okay, so the global warming "cult" promised us all that if we turned food production farmland into ethanol production, that we would have a zero carbon footprint source of energy.


 

Dollar Falls to Record Low of $1.50 per Euro on Rate Outlook Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar fell to an all-time low of $1.50 per euro on speculation Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke today will indicate the U.S. central bank is prepared to keep lowering interest rates. The currency is headed for its second straight monthly decline versus the euro on expectations a government report today will show a drop in U.S. home sales, bolstering the Federal Reserve's case for cutting borrowing costs. ``It's crunch time for the dollar,'' said Yuji Saito, head of foreign-exchange sales in Tokyo at Societe Generale SA, a unit of France's second-largest bank by market value. ``Bernanke may know that monetary policy alone cannot support the slowing U.S. economy.'' The U.S. currency touched $1.5047 per euro, the lowest since the European single currency was introduced in 1999, before trading at $1.5012 as of 8:17 a.m. in Tokyo from $1.4979 in late New York yesterday. It also was at 107.24 yen from 107.28. The U.S. currency may fall to $1.51 per euro and 106.80 yen today, Saito forecast. The U.S. dollar slid against 11 of the 16 most-active currencies after Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said yesterday turmoil in credit markets and the possibility of slower economic growth pose a ``greater threat'' than inflation. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ayvv2bpptzZw&refer=home