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%.

Nobody wants the dollar. Even some stores in NYC are accepting foreign currency. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, start saving, start looking for ways to reduce your monthly expenditures (maybe less movies, less eating out or ordering in), hold off on buying luxury items, etc. Take public transportation whenever possible, instead of wasting your money on gas. Save – Save – Save!!!

Let’s see, Bush says the country is not head into a recession.

Yet today, the market fell 315 pts on recession fears, oil pushed past $103 for the first time, the dollar hit another low against the euro, US Midwest manufacturing activity “plummeted” in February, consumer setiment slumped to a 16 year low.

Yep, Bush knows best.

As I as said in an earlier post, we’re in a recession. And according to some, it will only get worse. The problem is, the government continues to print money, without any backing, continues to borrow money (such as for the stimulus package), and the OPEC countries are migrating away from the dollar, and moving to the euro, to buy/sell oil.

It’s getting so bad, here in NYC, some tourist shops are accepting euros!!

Here we go again. An opposition group, like the Iraqi National Congress that provided “shaky” intelligence on Saddam’s WMD program, says Iran is speeding up nuke plans, contradicting the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate report that said Iran halted their program in 2003.

Smells like another war front opening up. I predict it’ll happen before the end of summer, to redirect our attention away from the failing economy. Don’t forget the real reason we’re going to war with Iran.

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

Although the author advocates Ron Paul for president, who I doubt will get the nomination, he explains here why we’re heading into the next Great Depression, why we may be heading into WWIII with Iran, how inflation is likely, and how we will no longer be the world’s superpower.

Here’s a good old article, which explains:

• why we’re in Iraq today
• why we’ll be in Iraq for a while
• why Iran may be next
• why there will always be instability in the Middle East 
• why we need a new energy policy, fast

Basically, it’s all about the dollar and oil.