Latest Pajamas Media Column (’Has the POR Economy Bottomed Out?’) Is Up
It will go up at BizzyBlog on Sunday (link won’t work until then) after the blackout expires.
The column has two graphics. I posted the first here yesterday. Here it is again, showing how far the indices as of March 9 had fallen since their October 2007 highs and May 30, 2008, just before The POR Economy began:
The POR Economy’s beginning and its initial causes were observed by yours truly in early July 2008.
Here is the second graphic at the column, which is an update of similar graphics posted during the past couple of weeks, showing how, in real, inflation-adjusted terms, the POR Economy has undone virtually all of the markets’ gains since the beginning of the Gingrich Revolution in 1995:
After yesterday’s 1% or so pullback, the Dow, S&P, and NASDAQ are at 7401, 784 and 1483, respectively. These values are:
- 47.8%, 49.9%, and 48.1% below their October 2007 highs.
- 41.4%, 44.0%, and 41.2% below their closes just before The POR Economy began.
I hope we don’t see the March 9 troughs again. Yesterday’s performances by Tax Cheat Tim Geithner, Chris Dodd, the People’s House, and the ‘Prompter President, especially his claim that Geithner is doing an “outstanding job,” provide little comfort in that regard.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/ap_on_re_us/oil_prices_58
And here Tom is something you will need to add to the POR economy, the rising price of oil. The irony is this:
The Fed also said a $1 trillion program to jump-start consumer and small business lending could be expanded to include other financial assets.
The announcements sent the dollar into a tailspin. The U.S. dollar dropped against other major currencies almost immediately, at one point falling to levels not seen since January. The dollar has fallen about 5 percent against the euro over the past couple days.
Because oil is bought and sold in dollars, a weak U.S. currency makes crude cheaper globally.
“The government is basically printing money to buy back all this paper, and it devalues the dollar,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading Corp.
Flynn said the rise in oil shouldn’t be taken as a sign that the economy in on the mend. The Fed is using all of its powers to prop up American businesses, “and this is one of their last shots,” Flynn said. “If this doesn’t work, they’re out of bullets.“
Yeah, they are out of bullets because they used them all shooting themselves in the foot…
I predicted this and the next shoe to drop is the final transitition to denominating all oil sales in Euros. You know what happens then…
Comment by dscott — March 20, 2009 @ 4:09 pm