PKey Newsbr•nbsp;U.K. Rescue Fails to Spur Loans (WSJ)br•nbsp;Japan's Central Bank Weighs Measures to Curb Stronger Yen (WSJ)/P PKey Reports Due (WSJ):br7:00 a.m. ICSC Chain Store Sales Index For Jan 3: Previous: -0.5%. br10:00 a.m. Nov Construction Spending: Expected: -1.2%. Previous: -1.2%. /P PbrQuotable br“How charming is divine philosophy!brNot harsh and crabbèd, as dull fools suppose,brBut musical as is Apollo’s lute,brAnd a perpetual feast of nectared sweets,brWhere no crude surfeit reigns.”/P P nbsp; John Milton/P PFX Trading – We’re Bullish on the US Dollar Today ...nbsp; and Tomorrow!/P PDo you remember what economists used to tell us about the global economy? If not, let me remind you.nbsp; /P PI remember the mantra-like chant from very clearly: There are major imbalances across the global economy.nbsp; Some countries save too much, others borrow and spend too much.nbsp; /P POf course the US seemed be the one to blame no matter the shape or weaknesses elsewhere.nbsp; The gut wrenching credit crunch of ...

It was cloudy in the Algerian city of Oran on Wednesday…and a fairly pleasant 14 degrees in the open air… But the assembled leaders of the OPEC oil exporters’ cartel must have been feeling rather hot under the collar. Since hitting a peak of $147 in July this year, the price of oil has fallen by about $100. That has put the oil exporting countries under a huge amount of pressure. And now they are determined to drive the price of oil back up again.

Global oil production is set to fall sharply

On Wednesday, the cartel announced that it will slash daily oil production by 2.46 million barrels a day. That’s OPEC’s biggest production cut ever. What’s even more extraordinary is that some of the big the non-OPEC producers are now coordinating their production cuts with the cartel.

The Russians attended the OPEC meeting and they may cut announce their own

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Some commodities are due a strong rebound, says Manraaj Singh. The underlying fundamentals are largely unchanged from July, when many resources were posting record highs. Manraaj says crude oil prices could double by the end of 2009, while agricultural prices will also soar.

This from Fleet Street Invest:

Just a few months ago it seemed like the whole investment world was jumping onto the commodities bandwagon. Now it seems that they can’t jump off fast enough.

The benchmark Reuters/Jefferies Commodity Index has now fallen by 51% from its peak in July (see chart below).

But as I’ll explain in a moment, commodity prices are set for a rebound. And if you are willing to take a longer term view, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Commodity prices reflect future expectations about the global economy. Less business activity and infrastructure spending means less demand for commodities.

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Guns, Safes and Treasuries: America’s Top Sellers Robert Morley, Columnist From theTrumpet.com December 2, 2008

Making money today is a lot tougher, but economic crisis breeds opportunities. The next big sellout items: bunkers, mattresses and Bibles.

I shouldn’t have been so shocked. Considering the economy, and the state of the banking sector, I probably should have expected it, but it was still a bit of a surprise. One of my acquaintances revealed to me that she now has a few thousand dollars buried in—not the market, not the bank—her backyard.

And she isn’t even close to being the only one.

Take Mr. Latham, for example. Not long ago, this 45-year-old Alabama cattle farmer and electrician drove his Chevy into Montgomery, stopped at the bank and withdrew $8,000 from his CD account—all in $20s. That was the day the Dow Jones fell 777 points.

Back on the ranch, Mr. Latham placed the bills in Ziploc bags,

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Now I can afford to cruise the streets looking for hitchhikers, so that I can give them a ride while I explain to them, ‘Hey, kid! Did you know that money is created by debt nowadays? It is!

Robert Morley, in an essay posted at thetrumpet.com, is titled, “How This Recession Could Change the World”, which is kind of funny, as it would be REALLY weird if a recession DIDN’T change the world in some way! Hahaha!

Hell, just getting short-changed by a lousy ten dollars by the snotty little cashier at the supermarket changed my world! Hahaha!

My attempts at humor falling flat, he brushes me aside and starts out asking, “Did you know that lower oil prices may set events in motion that will have a much bigger impact on your wallet than a few dollars off at the tank? There is an unexpected side effect of today’s breathe-easier gas prices

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div align="justify"The system of quasi-fixed exchange rates that dates back to the Nixon era, and which itself was an evolution of the gold standard span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"Bretton/span Woods regime agreed in 1944 (which couldn't survive the 1960's spike in Vietnam war inspired US inflation), has become unsustainable. In the original gold standard regime (fixed exchange at $35 for an ounce), the capacity of the US to issue dollars to the world was strictly limited, as was the capacity to run up deficits. A key factor driving financial crises is extreme trade imbalances between nations; debt gets accumulated partly as a result of financing a trade deficit. For smaller countries, a vicious spiral can ensue which ends in recourse to the IMF. In 1944, the US was the world's biggest creditor, and imposed a system that placed the whole burden of maintaining the balance of trade on deficit nations; there would ...

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Justice Litle thinks Dickens’ classic line  provides an apt description of today’s markets. Sure, this year has been hell. But it has also created some amazing opportunities for contrarian investors. Justice says this is most apparent in the oil and natural gas market, where irrational risk aversion has made most people forget the fundamentals.

This from Taipan Daily:

Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking.

— Vice–President-Elect Joe Biden

Just a few weeks ago, Vice–President-elect Joe Biden (back when he was plain old Senator Joe Biden) promised the world that Barack Obama will be “tested” by America’s enemies.

“Remember I said it standing here,” Biden told his Seattle audience, “if you don’t remember

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When people ask me if I think crude oil is going to $50 or $150, I nod sagely and say: “Yes, probably.” I’m not being flip. I’m simply giving both the short-term and the long-term timeframes. Short-term, crude oil is probably heading lower, even though it’s nearly 60% off its highs. The last chance to hold the line on oil prices was at OPEC’s emergency meeting. And the oil cartel choked like a cat on a hairball. They cut 1.5 million barrels per day of production when they needed to cut about 3 million barrels per day. The OPEC meeting was the last obstacle in the way of deflationary forces that are driving oil prices lower in the short-term. Long-term, there are forces that should drive oil much higher. And one of ...

Latin America was one of the main beneficiaries of the commodity and credit boom of the last five years. As a result, the region has been hit hard by the collapse in both this year. Emerging markets expert Irwin Greenstein says some Latin markets remain high risk for investors. But Brazil and Mexico should recover strongly when global markets stabilize.

CAN you feel it? That cold empty void where  Macro Man's dissection of last week's flight of the buck should have been. Of course, this only goes to show that our good MM's initial hunch was right in the sense that when he sets off on holiday fireworks spark from the sky in market land. Last week consequently marked the biggest USD rally (against the Euro) since the conception of the single currency. Actually, last week had the buck written all over it as Uncle Sam's currency rose against almost anything that moved to erase everything but a small part of the loss it had sustained so far in H01 2008. It seems that the exercise of leafing through those Benjamin Franklins is not as pityful an endeavor as it used to be, only a few months ago. Of course, the past week's performance of ...