With the unemployment rate soaring alongside the U.S. budget deficit, the Obama Administration and congressional Democrats are struggling to solve the nation’s problems before next year’s midterm election.

Oh woe! Oh woe! O! Bama! Where is thy recovery? Yesterday, the world’s stock markets took a hit. The Dow lost 186 points… following a very bad showing in China. Is this the end of the rally?

“It is critically important that Congress act before the [debt] limit is reached,” Tim Geithner wrote over the weekend in a letter to lawmakers, “so that citizens and investors here and around the world can remain confident that the United States will always meet its obligations.”

Two weeks ago, at a financial conference, a member of the audience asked an all too familiar question, “What’s your view on the U.S. dollar?”

Jobs Jamboree gets a lift…The real numbers…The dollar comes back with vengeance! RBNZ to meet this week…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

The ratio of the US budget deficit to GDP is at the highest it’s been at any point since World War II. Except there are no Nazis to fight. The only war going on is Team Obama’s war against capitalism.

In the currency market, the dollar prolonged its freefall against the euro. Late Friday, the euro was trading at $1.3996 vs. $1.3904 on Thursday.

Yesterday…we ventured into “Bubble World.”  “What’s going on? When will this be over? How bad do you think it will get? What can we do to turn this around?”

Internally, the Japanese are still not big spenders. The population is not only ageing… it’s shrinking. That’s not happening in the US.

HSBC said it was cutting 6,100 jobs… closing offices all over America.