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The dollar dropping forever is not a good thing. However, for now, it’s not altogether terrible. If nothing else, it’s helping US companies of all types and sizes do business overseas. Let’s look at some of the mechanics of what’s going on.

Whether a currency – anybody’s – is considered weak or strong is directly related to what return that currency provides compared with other currencies. So, since the prevailing interest rate here is, effectively, zero – the dollar is considered to be weak. F… Continue

Contents: Overview; Tea leaf readings; Economic reports; Perspective, “Still improving by the day”

“There is far more danger in a public monopoly than there is in a private monopoly, for when government goes into business it can always shift its losses to the taxpayer. The Government never really goes into business, for it never makes ends meet and that is the first requisite of business. It just mixes a little business with a lot of politics and no one ever gets a chance to find out what is ac… Continue

On Friday, the Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rate had moved up to 7.6% from 7.2% due to another 664,000 people having been dropped from payrolls all around the country. That's not good, no matter how you try to spin it. While not good, it's in line with the percentages we saw at the bottom of the 1973-74 and 1982-1983 recessions, so it's not totally unusual.

As I mentioned in my closing radio market report yesterday, reasonable people have legitimate cause for disbelief and… Continue

I have seen three separate articles on deflation today and thought I'd put my 13 cents in as I think it's about to become the favorite topic of my close personal friends in the financial media.

What about this deflation stuff?

Deflation is, basically, a drop in prices – as opposed to the inflation we saw in the first half of last year. After last year, it would seem to be a relief. But, no, apparently not. According to these articles, it would appear that we are going straight to deflat… Continue

It came to me that this word is a great way to define what's going on all around right now.

A couple dictionary definitions are, "noxious exhalations from putrescent organic matter; poisonous effluvia or germs polluting the atmosphere" and "a dangerous, foreboding, or deathlike influence or atmosphere." The latter is just a little more appropriate to what I'm thinking - though I'm sure we could find people and events that could stand in for the effluvia and organic matter - to say nothing of no… Continue