Rabid Liberal Rants

As reported byReuters, American tourists in Amsterdam are having a tough time exchanging their dollars for local currency, because nobody wants to get caught holding worthless paper.

The dollar touched a record low of $1.5651 against the euro and crude oil reached a record $111 a barrel. Grocery costs are expected to go up further with the rise in the cost of wheat.

The price of wheat has more than tripled during the past 10 months, making Americans’ daily bread — and bagels and pizza and pasta — feel a little like luxury items

“It’s going to affect everything … impact on every section of the grocery store,” said Michael Bittel, senior vice president of King Arthur Flour Co. in Norwich, Vt.

And JPMorgan Chase, along with the Feds, are trying to bail out Bear Stearns, an 85 year old investment bank, whose stock lost more than 20% of it’s value in recent days.

CCNWON has a good writeup of stagflation. In it he shows how commodity prices have gone up in recent years yet the wages for the average American has gone down about 2%.

They think the dollar will slide even more, so most everday investors are dumping the dollar in the currency markets.