I Cut My Hair [Today's News Poem, Feb, 5, 2010]
“Shares were mixed in the last hour, with Wall Street indexes bouncing back after being down more than 1.5 percent. Indexes had been rattled for most of the day by concerns that that large deficits in Europe could hobble the global recovery, even as the American labor market showed signs of improving. “
““The fear is what happens if the recovery in Europe rolls over into a double-dip recession,” said Hank B. Smith, chief investment officer for Haverford Investments. “It creates uncertainty as we wait to see how this relatively young experiment, the European Union, deals with this crisis.” “
--
Javier C Hernandez and Matthew Saltmarsh
“Economists say the Chinese yuan is undervalued and its exchange rate gap against other currencies has actually widened since the yuan-dollar peg ended in 2005. ”
--
UPI, Feb 5, 2010, 1:12am
“A rapid drop in the Dollar versus the Yuan would result in almost immediate, and major import substitution by US producers. Until inflation is tamped out, it will continue to drop the cost of US manufactures compared to foreign manufacturers. It would be a deathblow to European industries, which would need to respond with even more protectionism. Airbus is already on the ropes - a 20% drop in the dollar would see almost every plane order in the world for the next five years going to Boeing. Multiply this across every industry where the EU is barely competitive with the rest of the world and you can see that a disaster is brewing, not for the US, but for Europe. China would lose its target market for exports and its domestic consumption won't be able to make up for the difference.”
--
Khakjaan Wessington, exile.ru, 11.17.2006
A friend, a 'fag', once toured me through
The neighborhood from whence he came.
In Michigan, Detroit, his crew
Of drinking mates were friends—the same
He knew when growing up. His dad,
A mop and soap school janitor
Had bought a drink for me. The fad
For longish hair was gone—I wore
It long and didn't think
They'd think I was a faggy dink.
They'd seen a war I never knew
Before—while driving past the stores
With bars my paranoia grew.
Four crime scenes later? This was war—
A kind that hated popinjays
And frizzy hair and poet's ways.
“Don't look at anyone,” (the craze
Around there—shoot at any gaze)
He said, we looked at lots
Where homes and happy thoughts
Were once extant. I asked the cause
From everyone I met. Some said
That after riots darkie's claws
Destroyed their town. “Horseshit! You're fed
The hate another stokes. You cheer
For causes lacking moral heft.
Because of living here, the fear
Of losing work should drive you left!”
I later fled to home,
To California's foam,
To folks with work, who didn't fear
What happens when they lose their job—
Who didn't think long hair was queer,
Who weren't afraid enough to rob
And die for fists of cash to pay
For gas, for food. They liked long hair
And told me so. For that, I cut
It buzz. I didn't want to blare
My vanity before these sluts
And gigolos with clap
Who cared for fashion's crap.
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