SurvivalBlog reader Chuck accurately notes that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is in a predicament. At this juncture the Fed can neither raise nor lower interest rates without powerful macro level repercussions. Chuck mentioned that Mad Money host Jim Cramer made a passionate plea to Ben Bernanke to consider cutting interest rates that would in turn help the market and the people who are losing their jobs on Wall Street. More liquidity via lower interest rates might mean a brief respite for the battered US residential real estate market as well as the equities markets. But if Mr. Bernanke lowers rates then he will crack the critical support level for the US Dollar Index, which appears sacred at 80. And if the Fed raises rates, it will put Wall Street into a tail spin and possibly plunge the economy into depression. Hmmm… Quite a predicament. OBTW, SurvivalBlog reader “Boosters” mentioned that Fred at iTulip has already created an interesting annotated edit of the Cramer segment.
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First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq.
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More on Zimbabwe: IMF Issues 100,000% inflation alert. Regular contributor SF in Hawaii also mentioned this “must read” letter from Cathy Buckle that recently ran at the Rense.com web site: Zimbabwe – Crawling Under Razor Wire To Leave. SF’s comment: “[This] could have been good survival fiction. Too bad that its real” JWR’s comment: “Gee, weren’t we just talking about essential fats and oils?”
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I have added the new USPS “Forever” Liberty Bell postage stamps as a payment option for 10 Cent Challenge subscription payments, consulting fees, and for items purchased from my Mail Order Catalog.