Dollar Falls While Shoppers Riot:

In today's business news, two items leap to the forefront: First, the dollar has fallen against the Euro, dropping in value below the $1.30 exchange rate. While this might bode well in times when the U.S. economic engine was actually selling goods overseas—the cheap dollar made U.S. goods cheaper—this is simply not the case now. The U.S. doesn't manufacture much any longer. In fact, Americans are buying more and more from China, whose monetary value continues to be controlled by the state. The big fear is that the Chinese holders of dollars will begin to sell the dollars they hold in banks off faster, thus causing a further collapse of the dollar's value.

In other economic news, riots broke out across the U.S. as shoppers responded in unexpectedly huge numbers to advertised bargains at malls around the country. Today's New York Times reported on violence in Utah and Ohio, among other states, when good Christian folk in red states descended on shopping malls in hordes to grab up the latest foreign made goods.


Reading the Writing on the Wall:

Leading energy companies are beginning to shift towards recognizing that they too have a responsibility for the environment that their grandchildren will live in, even if Bush doesn't.

Today's Washington Post reported the following comments by a chief energy spokesman:

"We have to deal with greenhouse gases," John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., said in a recent speech at the National Press Club. "From Shell's point of view, the debate is over. When 98 percent of scientists agree, who is Shell to say, 'Let's debate the science'?"

But perhaps the most telling turn of events is

Exxon Mobil Corp., the highest-profile corporate skeptic about global warming, said in September that it was considering ending its funding of a think tank that has sought to cast doubts on climate change. And on Nov. 2, the company announced that it will contribute more than $1.25 million to a European Union study on how to store carbon dioxide in natural gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea, Algeria and Germany.

When Exxon Mobil starts scrambling for cover, you know a sea change is about to occur. The question is whether the actions taken by the energy companies will be enough or not. China is still out there building coal fired energy plants as quickly as they can be slapped together, and the temptation in this country to follow suit should not be ignored.