Transparency
Stocks plummeted today, and bonds fell in value with interest rates going much higher today.
The Dollar gained against the Euro, and gold gained back its recent loss.
Oil and gasoline went sideways, but gasoline has an ominous upward trend.
In the news today…..
Unemployment claims are 588,000 for the past week. This large number is pushing the Unemployment rate up. The total number of unemployed people in the US is 6.5 million.
Durable Goods Orders fell 2.6% last month. You can see the business starting to crumble in our current economy. It was only the past few months that Durable Goods started to decline. The year of year decline was 5.7%.
Transparency – The Bush Administration refused to allow anyone to know what assets they were guaranteeing with their “bailout” TARP money. This was very frustrating to all Americans and lead to deep distrust of the government. The Obama government has promised to disclose all, and make transparency a key difference. That has been put to the test as Bloomberg has officially asked for the assets that the Obama Administration just guaranteed to Citibank. The information has not been released yet, but let’s hope it is released. This way, the American people will be able to see if the guarantees are for something that might have value, or is basically worthless.
Here are Today’s numbers:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 8149 (down 226 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 2.82% (up 0.16%)
Euro – $1.2886
Gold – $907 (up $17)
Oil – $41.44 (down $0.72)
Gasoline – $1.23 (up $0.05)
