Nov. 8, 2007

--Stock Markets Tumble as Dollar’s Decline Adds to Anxiety…. “This is a critical juncture,” said Jim O’Neill, head of global economic research at Goldman Sachs. “The dollar is behaving in the past couple days as though the market is testing its reserve-currency status.” On Wednesday, the dollar took a sharp turn lower against several major currencies, sliding to a new record low against the euro and hitting its lowest level in decades against the Canadian dollar. One dollar now buys only about 93 Canadian cents. At one point in 2000, the euro was worth only 85 cents. Now one euro buys $1.46. One spark behind the dollar’s latest downturn was a comment by a Chinese lawmaker suggesting that the country should buy more euros. … Today it’s oil-producing countries and emerging economies like China that find themselves sitting on mountains of dollar reserve that are losing value. WSJ A1, A20, 11-8-07

--What are we learning about the role of government? Ditch the cliché that government should be run more like a business. It’s too flattering to business.—WSJ A2 Nov. 8, 2007

--The US is recalling over 4 million Chinese-made Aqua Dots toys after reports of children being sickened by a chemical contained in beads they swallowed. WSJ A1, 11-8-07

-The Pentagon blocked a Marine lawyer from testifying before Congress that severe interrogation techniques had derailed his prosecution of a suspected al Qaeda terrorist. -- WSJ A1, 11-8-07

--Oregon voters defeated a plan to fund a children’s health-care program by boosting tobacco taxes, following an expensive [tobacco] industry campaign against the ballot measure. WSJ A1, 11-8-07

The arts

…the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs sponsored a collaboration between members of Enslaved and the noisy electronic duo Fe-mail. …Extreme metal, which once seemed like a threat to Norway’s cultural heritage, is inevitably coming to be seen as part of it. How long before the government finances an ad campaign, inviting black-metal fans from around the world to come to the most evil country on Earth?—NYT B5, Nov. 8, 2007—thanks be to Odin

--[warning to teen girls against taking up with guys in 20s or 30s ] You may think you’re pretty cool for having an older boyfriend, but what you have to remember is he’s not cool for dating you. He’s a loser. And you can find plenty of losers to date at school.—WSJ B1, Nov. 8, 2007-- thanks be to “The Midwest Teen Sex Show”

--Five authors have sued the parent company of Regnery Publishing, a Washington imprint of conservative books, charging that the company deprives its writers of royalties by selling their books at a steep discount to books clubs and other organizations owned by the same parent company.-NYT B1, Nov. 7, 2007—thanks be to the Market God of Justice!!

The Culture [so to speak]

--From 2004 through 2006, Americans pulled about $840 billion a year out of residential real estate, via sales, home equity lines of credit and refinanced mortgages…---NYT A1 Nov. 8, 2007

--Myth: Americans are Educated. … in the formal sense, fewer than half of us have graduated from college… The upshot, in business and political communications, is that complexity or intricacy of any degree almost always fails.—Frank Luntz, WORDS THAT WORK (2007) p 184 [Luntz is GOP political pollster and consultant who helped on “Contract With America,” the Davis recall, and the Clinton Impeachment language]

--Myth: Americans Read. … I’ve found again and again that nobody reads. Ibid., 187