Key News/Chartage/Comments

• The yen fell against the dollar and the euro as Japan's unemployment rate rose to a four-year high. (Bloomberg)...are we finally going to see the yen move in-line with the deteriorating fundamentals in Japan, or is it just risk appetite hitting the yen again? 

USDJPY Weekly-Zoom-zoom if the fundamentals of falling trade surplus, deflation, and rising unemployment become the drives.

• The cost of borrowing longer-term U.S. dollars in the interbank market dropped to a new low Friday, while extending a streak of lower fixings to twenty-four days.(WSJ)

  [Note: The chart below appeared in CC recently--now updated! Showing bonds breaking below support (i.e. prices down yields up as people move cash from parking spot to stock market game.)] 

  Are bonds leading the charge? Key question: will the market look past the "stress test" fantasy being played out by the Fed and Treasury in an effort to stave off a more realistic FDIC that wants to get rid of the dinosaur banking institutions in our midst?

Dollar Index - Is the supply of dollar-based credit expanding? A test may be on the way! Functioning credit markets might allow the buck to play the global elixir role once again i.e. funding asset bubbles.  Governments wouldn't be unhappy, as they view asset bubbles as a self-reinforcing event to boost consumer sentiment.  Castles built on sand is no matter when one fights for re-election.

• The Chinese government has decided to launch a system next month to force foreign manufacturers of digital household appliances and other items equipped with computing devices to disclose key information, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Thursday. (Daily Yomiuri)

It is laughable still to call what China does "free trade."  They continue to steal everything technology-wise that isn't tied down and stored in a very deep bunker.  The quid-pro quo of doing business in China--tell us all and we will most happily let you in, Mr. Stupid Foreign Dog.  And yet our so-called "leaders" and "enlightened" industrialists continue to lap it up.  It is to cry!

On that happy note, have a great weekend.