Free Republic

Support broken as the dollar yen plunges to an all time record low. Everyone now watching the Nikkei to see if it opens. That the BOJ has not intervened yet is beyond ominous, and nothing short of a death sentence for the Yen carry traders.

The panic has begun. What now? By Paul R. La Monica, assistant managing editor March 15, 2011: 4:02 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Beware the Ides of March, indeed. Investors were in full-fledged panic mode Tuesday morning. Stocks, long-term bond yields and commodities were plummeting. Meanwhile. the VIX (VIX), Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, was surging. It shot up more than 20% at one point. This all followed the more than 10% drop in the Nikkei Tuesday, as fears about damaged nuclear reactors following Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami continued to grip Japan. Are investors overreacting? Some strategists don't...

The time has come to deliver, but, will he? The ECB rate decision is what we have been waiting for all week. Maybe the downgrading of Greece yesterday and the potential downgrades of Spain and Portugal could put Trichet and Co. under further pressure to justify deeper cuts rather than the widely expected 50bp (2.50%). With the FX market trading on interest rate expectations, one would expect the EUR to gain major traction with 50bp ease or more, just like Cable last week. But, we are talking about the ECB and historically they have a tendency to disappoint! The US$...

The progression of bad newspaper news is not surprising, but the lack of concern is mystifying and frightening. Hirschhorn wrote this: The collapse of daily print journalism will mean many things……. And it will seriously damage the press’s ability to serve as a bulwark of democracy.” Ya think? Hirschhorn tossed off in one dismissive sentence one of the most crucial potential developments for journalism and democracy since the First Amendment. I think brass bands are required to force a focus on the democratic implications of what’s happening. Despite the general lack of debate and concern about the subject, I was...

The uncertainty that caused last week's dramatic stock market swings and central bank interventions will stoke investors' fears for a while, but traders likely will know more next week about the illiquid credit valuations behind the turmoil. As the dust settles after a week in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average had both its single biggest advance this year and its second-biggest decline, investment banks will likely be working overtime. The largest Wall Street brokerage firms have been trying to mark to market or determine the market value of illiquid esoteric securities that have gone sour in the ripple effects...