I’ll be going into the automotive news elsewhere, so this is pretty short.

First the Celtic Tiger Kitten has been taken to the vets to be neutered, as S&P lowers Ireland’s rating from AAA to AA+.

Ireland played the “cheap labor with good access to markets” game, and lost to former eastern bloc nations, and played the real estate and building game, which everyone lost.

In the housing market, we have defaults on FHA insured mortgages rising with 7.46% of the loans being 90+ days overdue, in foreclosure, or bankruptcy, up from 6.16% at this time last year.

This means that there is still a lot of inventory out there that has yet to hit the market.

In energy, the concerns over the US auto manufacturers has driven oil below $50/bbl, because nothing says short oil supply like house sized SUV, and the same concerns about the economy have driven the dollar up as traders head for safety.