One prominent investment analyst published some interesting ruminations on the China peg just today.

Anyway, that’s just my lack of economic clear-headedness showing.

I don’t think today’s going to be another clear day of markets though; more events in London, attacks in Egypt giving uncertainty in the Middle East, airlines merging, Microsoft giving unclear results, peak energy demands in California and Algerians kidnapped. Another day, yet more news.

;b

Falling back to the earlier theme about Brit Hume and the perversity of the markets at moments like this, I couldn’t help noticing that the US Dollar yesterday had its worst single day against the Japanese Yen since 12/06/2002, the day Paul O’Neill resigned as Secretary of the Treasury; and that even Sterling – after a brief dip – ended up making significant gains against the Dollar. The fact that the second series of Tube attacks fizzled and failed to cause mass casualties (thank goodness!) seemed to liberate traders to be just as selfish and vicious as they possibly could in their little microcosmic world of high finance. Was there ever a more apropos moment to remember Marx’s famous observation that history always repeats itself: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce?

I mean that remark, of course, not as a commentary on the grotesque terrorism itself, but on the subsequent self-centered and panicked reactions market participants displayed following the two events. It ain’t pretty.