Mortgage stat

U.S. Farmers Plan the Most Acres Since 1944 : classic case of supply response to demand shift

Corn acres will rise 15 percent from last year to 90.454 million, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. Soybean acres may fall 11 percent to 67.14 million. Corn production could rise 18 percent to more than 12.4 billion bushels

 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNCxjb_ZiKJg&refer=home

hedgies and bike-ridding Mr. Rogers dont corner&mess around with commodities where supply is freely available.  Go back to nickel and corner it to death fools!!!  suported by lame pension fund manager , passive indexing idiot. and pay that contango, pay it , pay !

after Chinas movelast week : Indian Central Bank Unexpectedly Raises Interest Rate (Update4)

The Reserve Bank of India increased its overnight lending rate by a quarter percentage point today to a 4 1/2 year high of 7.75 percent. The Mumbai-based bank also raised banks’ reserve requirements for the third time since December, and said it is shifting policy away from balancing inflation with economic growth to focusing solely on prices.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=a.ghSkoS2T5Y&refer=asia

Sweden to axe wealth tax symbol of leftwing rule..go long SEK??

Sweden’s centre right -government’s plan to scrap the country’s wealth tax, will remove one of the most powerful symbols of seven decades of almost uninterrupted leftwing rule.

Fredrik Reinfeldt, prime minister, who won elections last September, said a proposal to eradicate the 1.5 per cent tax on personal wealth of more than SKr1.5m ($200,000, €160,000, £109,000) would be included in next month’s budget.

 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/96db2066-dd92-11db-8d42-000b5df10621.html

Bernanke comments

Ben back on Wednesday before the congress:

“I do want to emphasise that we have not shifted away from an inflation bias,” he said.

Mr Bernanke said changes to the Fed statement were intended to give it greater scope to respond quickly if the outlook for either growth or inflation deteriorated significantly. “We are looking for a bit more flexibility given the uncertainty we face.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0924c3d0-dd92-11db-8d42-000b5df10621.html

Now that Iran bastards are in spotlight again….focus is on : Coming of the 12th Imam.

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD143607

January 25, 2007	No.1436
Waiting for the Mahdi: Official Iranian Eschatology Outlined in Public Broadcasting Program in Iran The website of the governmental Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) has posted a lengthy document titled “The World toward Illumination.” The document is a transcript of an IRIB series on the imminent arrival of the Mahdi, the Twelfth or Hidden Imam, awaited by Shi’ites as the Messiah

  is a manifestation of God’s glory and beauty. Imam Mahdi is the perfect human being. His behavior is praiseworthy and his manners immaculate. He is the embodiment of justice. His torch of guidance is for all mankind…

“In short, when he reappears, peace, justice and security will overcome oppression and deceit and one global government, the most perfect ever, will be established. He will make the earth prosper in a way in which no ruins will remain. Man’s maturity will reach its height, full equality will be established among the people, and no one will be arrogant toward the other and will not try to dominate others.

CBOE launched vol arb index last week

http://www.cboe.com/AboutCBOE/ShowDocument.aspx?DIR=ACNews&FILE=cboe_20070314.doc

 The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) today announced that it will begin publishing a new benchmark index, the CBOE S&P 500 VARB-X Strategy Benchmark (VTY) on Wednesday, March 14, 2007. The new index tracks the performance of a hypothetical volatility arbitrage trading strategy designed to capitalize on the historical difference between S&P 500 Index (SPX) option implied volatility and the realized, or historical, volatility of the S&P 500 Index.

Vietnam property draws foreign cash: crazy western inflows driving the prices higher

http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=fundsNews&storyID=2007-03-15T104202Z_01_NOA538244_RTRUKOC_0_VIETNAM-DEVELOPERS.xml

 The spiel is working. VinaCapital closed a $407 million property fund this month, turning away around $200 million (103 million pounds) of subscriptions, and IndoChina Capital raised $205 million last year. Now Vietnam’s biggest fund manager, Dragon Capital, is following the same .

Top investor sees U.S. property crash

Commodities investment guru Jim Rogers stepped into the U.S. subprime fray on Wednesday, predicting a real estate crash that would trigger defaults and spread contagion to emerging markets.“You can’t believe how bad it’s going to get before it gets any better,” the prominent U.S. fund manager told Reuters by telephone from New York.

“It’s going to be a disaster for many people who don’t have a clue about what happens when a real estate bubble pops.

“It is going to be a huge mess,” said Rogers, who has put his $15 million belle epoque mansion on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on the market and is planning to move to Asia.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1470530620070314?src=031407_1316_DOUBLEFEATURE_mortgage_troubles&pageNumber=1

THREE QUARTERS OF BELOW POTENTIAL GROWTH AND COUNTING by Paul L. Kasriel

http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/kasriel/2007/0313.html

 great piece of economic research  by one of mine favorite economists