] The dollar index, a measure of the dollar against a
] basket of currencies, extended a slide to a nine-year
] low.

This is going to require a little explanation as to why this is important. A large portion of the US economy is dependant on imports. We'll start with cars. Currently the #1 domestic car manufacturer is GM followed by Ford and Toyota (yes, that's right, Toyota). The trick here is, no one makes a car anymore with all domestic parts. Toyota obviously makes a good number of their parts in Japan where they are brought over and installed in US cars, GM does similar things, primarily in Mexico, and Ford and Chrysler both do a good amount of their construction in Canada, which means the dollar sliding across the board will increase prices for DOMESTIC products. The sliding dollar will also cause increased pressure on import prices, so things actually made in other places will be more expensive as well.

Because we're an "import" economy, this means that costs are going up, but there is no concurrent increase in revenue, so wages (the demand side of that supply-demand equation remain stagnant. This also applies in other areas as well. The computers we're reading this on are most likely made out of all, or nearly all, imported parts and just assembled here, and those two products are not unique, far from it in fact.

The results on the international markets has already started this morning, with the Nikkei (the Japanese version of the Dow) down a bit under a percent, with expected slides in US companies on the German and British exchanges later today. We'll see how that goes.

One thing that will prove interesting will be oil. With the dollar sliding, one would expect that the price of oil will increase further. This may not actually be the case, but there's a pretty big BUT at the end of this. Oil prices are universally done in terms of US dollars. If you're in Germany, you take your Euros, buy dollars and then use those dollars to buy oil. This is something that was done by of all people OPEC. Thirty odd years ago, their #1 trading partner was us, and so to make oil transactions simple globally, they benchmark the price of oil in dollars. It worked for them and so now, all oil exporting companies/nations handle this pretty much the same way. They sell oil for dollars.

So, what happens to the price of oil? Good question. Other countries, notably European ones are in theoretically good shape. Their money is worth more, so oil costs less. Some other countries, notably Japan are going to get squeezed. They export heavily to us, so the sliding dollar hurts them, pretty badly in fact. But, the sliding dollar also means that oil is less expensive. The bottom line I think is that the sliding dollar hurts them more than it helps them. Oil is cheaper, but because we're not buying as much stuff, they don't need the oil and so they aren't helped by the decreased costs as much as they're... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

Yahoo! News - Dollar Hits New Low, Gold at 16-Yr High

] The 21-year-old man, who had chained himself to the
] railway near the city of Nancy, lost a leg after he was
] crushed by the train and died despite receiving emergency
] treatment at the scene.

It takes a long time for a train to stop. Chaining yourself to the tracks is a BAD idea.

Yahoo! News - Anti-nuclear protester killed by waste train

] Israel will permit Yasser Arafat to be
] laid to rest in the Gaza Strip when he
] dies, but will keep the Palestinian leader out of
] Jerusalem, a city "where Jewish kings are buried and not
] Arab terrorists," an Israeli Cabinet minister said
] Friday.

Well this is sure to make the Palestinians happy.

Yahoo! News - Gaza, Ramallah May Entomb Arafat

] Ashcroft is expected to resign before Bush's Jan. 20
] inauguration

And all this time I didn't think that God cared...

Yahoo! News - Aides: Ashcroft Likely to Leave AG Post

] "I'll reach out to everyone who shares our goals," said
] Bush, who 24 hours earlier had promised to try to win
] over those who voted for his Democratic opponent.

Once upon a time someone said "I'm a uniter, not a divider." I think what he meant was, he's a liar.

Yahoo! News - Bush Pledges to Make Changes to Tax Code

You know... I'm not really sure I have to say anything about this one, although it does dovetail nicely with the votus interuptus that happened after the votergasm.org party on Tuesday.

MarryAnAmerican - Homepage - No good American will be left behind!

] The Bush administration announced Wednesday that it will
] run out of maneuvering room to manage the government's
] massive borrowing needs in two weeks, putting more
] pressure on Congress to raise the debt ceiling when it
] convenes for a special post-election session.

Lovely. Cut income taxes, cut corporate taxes, invent a "birth tax."

Yahoo! News - White House: Debt Ceiling Must Be Raised

Okay, this is just damn funny.

Votergasm

] Will Doherty, executive director of the San
] Francisco-based Verified Voting Foundation, said despite
] Florida's assertion that the malfunctions of the laptops
] handling voter registrations were minor, his organisation
] is aware of dozens of voters who were turned away from
] the polls "because of that minor system crash". Doherty
] also said there have been multiple reports related to
] touch-screen calibration problems. Some voters have
] reported that when they touched the screen next to their
] candidate's name the screen highlighted the opposing
] candidate, according to Doherty.

Something that should be thought about with the nightmare starting tomorrow.

Black Box Voting: Ballot - Tampering in the 21st Century

] The midyear report dealt only with corporate audits. The
] report on 2003, issued last April, found the audit rate
] for all businesses was 2.1 per 1,000 businesses, down
] slightly from the previous year, while the audit rate for
] individuals was 6.5 audits for every 1,000 taxpayers, up
] 14 percent.

If I see this right, the IRS is three times as likely to go after a person as they are to go after a company. Call me crazy, but this seems backwards. Companies, in general, have far more money than individuals and if they're doing something illegal, have people who depend on them. Shouldn't there be more attention paid where it would do the greatest good?

Yahoo! News - Report: IRS Audits of Businesses Decline