According to Bloomberg Magazine, the tote board of losses from write-downs now stands at $335 billion. Recall… I said last November that the total would reach $400 billion… Well… I think I’m going to revise this number upward… If we’re already at $335 billion, it won’t take long to reach that initial number that I guessed at last November. It’s funny how, I made that call, and soon afterward, there were a ton of news stories floating around using that same number!

Anyway, the point I’m making here is that this is not getting any better, which makes you wonder why anyone would be buying dollars right now, eh? The Wall Street profit formula is broken, and no one seems to know how to fix it… But don’t let that get in the way of Big Ben stoking the dollar!

Someone asked me yesterday what the heck was going on with the Canadian dollar/loonie (CAD), as it had been quite volatile lately. Yes, it has grasshopper… I believe it’s all tied to the volatility in the price of oil. I’ve said this before, oil is the bellwether for commodities, and that also includes the price of gold.

After all this yelling at walls, and head shaking this morning, I’ll head to the Big Finish with a “happy” item…

The Brazilian real (BRL) continues to buck the dollar buying binge, and post nice gains versus the dollar. The Brazilian Central Bank President, Meirelles, isn’t going to go around blaming something/someone else for his inflation problem. Instead, I look for Meirelles to hike rates at his meeting today, following up on last month’s rate hike. Inflation had picked up to 5.25% in May… And that’s not acceptable. The Brazilian President is also singing from the same song sheet as the Central Bank President regarding inflation… So, expect another rate hike today… And that should increase the fire under reals.

Currencies today 6/4/08: A$ .96, kiwi .7835, C$ .99, euro 1.5470, sterling 1.9560, Swiss .9625, ISK 77, rand 7.7666, krone 5.1610, SEK 6.0375, forint 156.70, zloty 2.1820, koruna 15.96, yen 104.60, baht 32.68, sing 1.3640, HKD 7.8070, INR 42.72, China 6.9390, pesos 10.32, BRL 1.6280, dollar index 73.27, Oil $123.35, Silver $16.66, and Gold… $878.40

That’s it for today… Hey, did you hear the news there’s good rockin’ at midnight! No, what I’m talking about is… Did you hear Glenn Beck talk briefly about me on Monday night? Here’s the text of what he said on his nationally broadcast show…

“All this week you can find out how to be ready for absolutely anything with my free e-mail newsletter. In tomorrow’s edition, I’ve asked the president of Everbank, Chuck Butler, to show you the basics of investing safely outside of the U.S. dollar. You can only get it by signing up right now at GlennBeck.com.”

Regular readers of the Pfennig and Review & Focus won’t have to go there to read, because it’s all the things I tell you about all the time… But imagine the number of people around the country that will go and read my stuff, and finally see things correctly! HA!

I can see the “real” President of EverBank, rolling his eyes right now, as once again, someone said that I was the President of EverBank… He’s good about it, though, and that’s a good thing given the number of times that’s happened in the past six years! Anyway… It’s time to go… You’ve been a great audience, I’m here all week, try the veal! I hope your Wednesday is Wonderful!

P.S. To get The Daily Reckoning sent directly to your inbox, sign up for our free email newsletter, or if you prefer to use RSS, subscribe to the Daily Reckoning RSS feed.

Source: On the Soapbox Again

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