So, the commodities markets surged as a result of the Fed’s quantitative easing, which means that they are expecting inflation there, which has, among other things, put oil at a 4-month high,

The fact that the 2009 US budget deficit has just been revised higher may also be contributing to traders’ positions.

Of course, Bernanke is primarily interested in preventing deflation, so this is a good thing, though I wonder how effective he will be.

Case in point: investors requested only $4.7 billion out of $200 billion available for the Fed small business and consumer lending program, the TALF.

It’s a confidence problem, and I really think that the first step to restoring confidence needs to be removing the malefactors in finance who screwed this up in the first place.

The dollar rose today, largely on the belief that yesterday’s drop indicated a time for profit taking.