Dollar up vs yen as BOJ warns of further export woes…  Euro gains broadly; doubts about U.S. auto bailout loom… Market expects ECB rate cut; policy-makers seem divided

The dollar rose against the yen on Monday after the Bank of Japan followed last week’s interest rate cut with a warning that the health of Japan’s economy has deteriorated and is likely to get worse.

But investors’ equally dim view of the U.S. economy hurt the greenback against the euro, which rose broadly in holiday-thinned trade. Doubts about whether a U.S. automaker bailout would steer the economy out of recession also hit the dollar.

Traders said volumes were razor-thin in the lead-Up to the Christmas holidays, aggravating even the slightest moves in the currency markets. Still, many said demand for dollars remained low.

“The dollar view is so opaque at the moment, and the risk reward at this time

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by Claus Vistesen: Lausannebr /br /Today it is precisely one month since yours truly first reported that he was starting to feel a href="http://clausvistesen.squarespace.com/alphasources-blog/2008/10/21/swamped.html"swamped/a. Well he still is, but even though your author is still struggling to meet the quantitative demands of neo-classical graduate economics (especially, the statistical vintage) he still thinks that now might be as good a time as ever to jump back into the saddle and practice some economic punditry. After all, this is something he, much unlike graduate econ math, is quite familiar with.Needless to say, it is difficult to know where to start but since I am only now returning from an extended pause it might a good idea to pick up one of the themes I laid out just before the anvil of quantitative science hit me. Consequently, one thing that I have been persistently noting in my ongoing analysis of the global economy ...

Today it is precisely one month ago that yours truly noted that he was swamped. He still is, but even though your author is still struggling to meet the quantitative demands of neo-classical graduate economics (especially, the statistical vintage) he still thinks that now might be as good a time as ever to jump back into the saddle and practice some economic punditry. After all, this is something he, much unlike graduate econ math, is quite familiar with.Needless to say, it is difficult to know where to start but since I am only now returning from an extended pause it might a good idea to pick up one of the themes I laid out just before the anvil of quantitative science hit me. Consequently, one thing that I have been persistently noting in my ongoing analysis of the global economy has been the risk of deflation in

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Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares are at new low today but analysts and even Jim Cramer himself are going to bat for the case to buy Google shares on the cheap.  Que Quagmire...

Its a Google World, they rule Search, News, Blogs, Maps, Images, and of course Youtube.com, which none of us can live without, right Glen? Now that Google shares are trading at $300, its time ...

No-one likes an economic correction, says Bill Bonner. But they are both “essential and helpful.” If left to its own devices, the market will sort out its own mess. But the Fed will never let this happen. And just like Japan in the 90’s, this will only draw out the suffering.

More from The Daily Reckoning:

Spare a moment to remember Marcus Aurelius. Obama hasn’t yet called our “Sovereign Hotline” for advice. But when he does, we’re going to recommend he read Marcus Aurelius’s meditations.

Obama has pledged to change things. That part will be easy; things are changing fast. Trouble is, they’re not changing in the way he would like.

When Marcus Aurelius was emperor, Rome was going through major changes too. There were periods of famine, war and plague. Most alarming, the barbarians were at the gates; Marcus Aurelius spent most of his career trying to keep them

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Sankta simplicita Grigory Pasko, journalist Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. There exists such a legend. When on the campo dei Fiori in Rome they were burning Giordano Bruno at the stake, the bonfire suddenly began to die out: either the wind began to blow, or the firewood had gotten damp. From the crowd of onlookers observing the execution, to the pyramid of firewood on which Giordano was tied, there suddenly lunged a sweet little old lady and carefully put an armload of dry straw into the dying flame. The fire flared up with new strength. Looking at this scene, Giordano exclaimed: "Sankta simplicita!" (Holy simplicity!) (It is possible that this story took place at the execution of Jan Hus… In the given instance not this is important). Recently in Oslo the Norwegian Helsinki ...

Sankta simplicita Grigory Pasko, journalist Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. There exists such a legend. When on the campo dei Fiori in Rome they were burning Giordano Bruno at the stake, the bonfire suddenly began to die out: either the wind began to blow, or the firewood had gotten damp. From the crowd of onlookers observing the execution, to the pyramid of firewood on which Giordano was tied, there suddenly lunged a sweet little old lady and carefully put an armload of dry straw into the dying flame. The fire flared up with new strength. Looking at this scene, Giordano exclaimed: "Sankta simplicita!" (Holy simplicity!) (It is possible that this story took place at the execution of Jan Hus… In the given instance not this is important). Recently in Oslo the Norwegian Helsinki ...

by Edward Hugh: Barcelona“The latest flash PMI indicates the alarming extent to which the financial crisis has developed rapidly into an economic crisis, with the Eurozone economy contracting at the fastest rate for over ten years in October. Manufacturers are the hardest hit, with the sector contracting at a pace exceeding even the most pessimistic of forecasts polled by Reuters.Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

The eurozone economy continued the contractaction registered in the third quarter in October at a speed not seen since the start of the euro in 1999, with the kock-on effects of the global bank crisis hitting manufacturing industry especially hard, and making a huge dent in industry’s order books.These are the grim conclusions which can be drawn from the latest - Flash - Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) readings for the economies of 15-country currency zone. The low readings registered are provisional, but experience

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I've long argued that Paolo Scaroni of ENI and Fulvio Conti of Enel were both in the Kremlin's pocket ever since agreeing to be the first foreign companies to buy stolen Yukos assets in an auction, then subsequently help Gazprom launder these assets via a call option. Of course, what is much more valuable than recruiting some high-level accomplices to assist in state theft is the powerful service they can provide to change the foreign policy of Italy, be it under Il Professore Romano Prodi (who nearly took a job with Gazprom like Schröder) or the inimitable Silvio Berlusconi, who finds it difficult to get through a meeting with the Russians without proposing a wife swap. So really it should have come as no surprise to Vice President Dick Cheney's delegation that visiting Rome to ...

VANCOUVER, B.C. - The U.S. financial crisis has cut so deep - and the government has taken on so much debt in misguided attempts to bail out such companies as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - that even larger financial shocks are still to come, global investing guru Jim Rogers said in an exclusive interview with Money Morning. Indeed, the U.S. financial debacle is now so ingrained - and a so-called "Super Crash" so likely - that most Americans alive today won’t be around by the time the last of this credit-market mess is finally cleared away - if it ever is, Rogers said. The end of this crisis "is a long way away," Rogers said. "In fact, it may not be in our lifetimes." During a 40-minute interview during a wealth-management conference in this West Coast Canadian city last month, Rogers also said:...