Now that the subprime, low-income crowd has taken their lashings, there’s a new Great Recession victim — the faux rich.

Dollar falls as US consumers become more positive…GDP to be reported this morning…European confidence increases…Mexican peso recovers…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Currencies trade in a tight range…  Another new plan to help homeowners…  RBNZ and Riksbank slash interest rates! The Governorator speaks!… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Data shows just how bad things are…  Trade deficits narrow…  EU confirms they are in a recession…  RBA intervening again… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Why inflation is bad news for the high street. You’d expect the slump in the housing market to take its toll on the high street. And indeed it has.

A US government home-price index has posted the sharpest decline in its 17-year history – and analysts say things won’t get better until at least 2009.

Home prices fell 3.1% in the first quarter compared with last year, according to The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. This from AP:

Declines in the government index, which focuses on less expensive properties and includes fewer houses bought with risky home loans that have gone sour over the past year, show the depth of the housing market’s troubles.

The number of foreclosures in California have sky-rocketed.

According a report in the LA Times, the number of foreclosures in the state in the first quarter this year is up a staggering 327% from year-ago levels — an average of 500 foreclosures a day.

Ominously, the paper quotes research from DataQuick warning that the widening foreclosure problem could “spread beyond the current categories of dicey mortgages, and into mainstream home loans.”