People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Li Ruogu told the Financial Times: “China’s custom is that we never blame others for our own problem. . . . For the past 26 years, we never put pressure or problems on to the world. The U.S. has the reverse attitude. Whenever they have a problem, they blame others. Further, said Mr. Li, “The appreciation of the RMB will not solve the problems of unemployment in the U.S. because the cost of labor in China is only 3% that of U.S. labor. They should give up textiles, shoemaking, and even agriculture probably. They should concentrate on sectors like aerospace and then sell those things to us, and we would spend billions on this. We could easily balance the trade.”

Euro touched 1.31 (and fell back). Crude has been back over $50 a couple of times. Speculation still rampant in junk like K-Mart and Google, to say nothing of the semiconductor stocks (DRAM pricing is tanking, BTW). 21-day equity Put/Call ratio is 0.569. Commercials are heavily short the S&P futures. I think I hear a roaring noise in the distance. What can it be?

“Stephen Roach, the chief economist at investment banking giant Morgan Stanley, has a public reputation for being bearish. But you should hear what he’s saying in private.
Roach met select groups of fund managers downtown last week, including a group at Fidelity. His prediction: America has no better than a 10 percent chance of avoiding economic `Armageddon.’”

Boston Herald

“But U.S. supply of distillate fuel, which includes heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 1 million barrels to 114.6 million barrels, or 14 percent below year ago levels. Heating oil supplies are also tight in Europe and Japan, which are major consumers during the cold winter months.

“What we may be seeing now is a fool’s pullback,” said Bill O’Grady, an energy futures analysts at A.G. Edwards. “It’s November 17th. You’ve got 2 to 3 months of winter in front of you. If you get a cold winter would new highs shock me? Not in the least.””

Oil market pullback may be short-lived

” SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A fourth of all Californians are thinking about moving — either out of state or just to another town — to bring down their housing costs, a new survey shows.

High rents and rising home prices have residents, particularly younger ones, rethinking the value of the mountain views and ocean shores they say they treasure. Of the respondents under 35, for example, nearly half say they might relocate to somewhere cheaper.

…

The results dovetail with findings this month by the California Association of Realtors showing that only 19 percent of the state’s households can afford the state’s median-priced home of $465,000.”

One in Four Californians Consider Moving