THE U.S. DOLLAR IS FLIRTING WITH THE "ABYSS"

From Brian Hunts Market Notes

The idea behind this week's chart is the most important one you're probably not following right now. It's the U.S. dollar and its abyss...   Since registering a short-term peak of 81 in January, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar's value against a basket of global paper currencies, has plunged 6%. While this doesn't sound like much to some folks, it's an enormous loss for a major currency in such a short time.   This decline has taken the dollar to a key "abyss" level... the low of 75.63 reached last November. On March 21, the dollar index closed below this level... only to step back from the edge and rally back near 76.   Dollar holders should keep an eye on this trading action. If the dollar fails to rally here, it's leaping into the abyss of sub-75... the low reached in 2009... And it's a strong indication the dollar is succumbing to the serious fiscal problems U.S. citizens and their elected representatives refuse to deal with.

The BIG health care problem that could be costing you hundreds of dollars a year

From Dr. David Eifrig in Retirement Millionaire:
Medicine is big business. The hope that Obama or any group can change it magically and turn it into a quiet garden where perfect vegetables and fruits are grown and freely shared in the town square is wishful thinking.
An article in Smart Money magazine shows how costs are going up dramatically as local hospitals increase their market share of delivering health care. The story described the "acquisition spree that's in full swing," and how hospitals buying up independent physician practices around the country are leading to higher costs and headaches.
For example, a stress test done by an independent cardiologist in Milwaukee is $170 - but $240 at the local hospital, Aurora Health Care. Or a sleep study performed in Orlando, Florida: $780 versus $1,140. The list goes on.
The other problem with big business taking over is that no one is measuring the outcomes of the care delivered. And they won't because of the clear conflict of interest. For-profit hospitals are in business to make money, not worry about good care. And that's leading to exploding prices for things... and worsening care.
For example, in Springfield, Illinois, an exam for strep throat might cost $400. Yet an independent pediatrician in Chapel Hill charges only $12 for the rapid strep test - the deciding factor whether to treat or not treat with antibiotics.
This sort of pricing doesn't make sense. How much is the doctor's technique of swabbing the throat worth to society? And the power to prescribe medicine? Let's be generous and say the exam takes 10 minutes (really, it's more like two minutes).
If a doctor's practice is going to make $200,000 a year, it needs to charge $100 an hour - about $16 for the 10-minute exam. Even if we double it ($32) for 50% overhead, and add the cost of the test, the practice could justify a $50 charge. But $400?
We're letting large hospitals and corporate arms of insurers share in the fees for imaging exams, diagnostic analyses, and other pools of money that doctors once owned. Letting big government shift the money from local doctors to big corporations is a tactic that won't improve your health care. Please don't trust new government programming to make your health care any better. It won't, it's impossible when the goals are this misaligned.
Crux Note: Each issue of Dr. David Eifrig's Retirement Millionaire is loaded with ideas to help you save money, invest wisely, and live better... and it just might save your life. In his latest issue, Doc tells readers why its time to fire their doctors, and what to do instead. To learn more about Retirement Millionaire, click here.
More on healthcare:
Protect yourself from this common and deadly cancer
These could be the No. 1 "safe haven" stocks for the next few months
Move over food and energy: Another widely used product is rocketing to 10-year highs...
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Analyst: The dollar crash has officially begun

From The TSI Trader:
The U.S. Dollar is falling apart fast. Really fast. Two days ago it completed a failed daily cycle when it traded below 76.12.
Now, literally within this hour, the U.S. Dollar has already failed its yearly cycle by trading below 75.63. The next downside target for the U.S. Dollar would be the three-year cycle low at 70.70.
Can you comprehend what will happen to the price of commodities when people realize that the world's reserve currency is in a precipitous freefall? Who will want to own the currency then?
Who wants to own it now, for that matter? Something like 70% of all new government debt is being purchased by our FED – not the Japanese, or Saudis, or Chinese. We Americans are buying our own debt because no one else wants it.
So what will people buy with dollars to get rid of them?
Read full article...
More on the U.S. dollar:
This could be the day the dollar falls apart
Jim Rogers: "We're at a moment of truth for the dollar"
BREAKDOWN: The U.S. dollar is plunging to new lows for the year
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Warren Buffett is making a big bet on higher interest rates

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. sold $1.5 billion of mostly fixed-rate debt to retire floating-rate notes at a time when government bond yields are rising and the U.S. is showing signs of economic improvement.
A unit of Buffett's Omaha, Nebraska-based holding company issued $750 million of 4.25%, 10-year notes yesterday priced to yield 95 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It also sold $375 million of 3-year, 1.5% notes and the same amount of floating-rate debt yielding 33 basis points more than the 3-month London interbank offered rate, the data show.
"The market scrutinizes Buffett's moves very closely and this would indicate he's thinking interest rates in the longer term may go up," Vijay Chander, Hong Kong-based head of credit strategy at Standard Chartered Plc, said in a phone interview. "That's consistent with our house view that the U.S. economy is improving."
The world's most successful investor locked in interest payments on most of the debt as a report showed U.S. manufacturing expanded in December at the fastest pace in seven months, spurring confidence the world's biggest economy is gaining momentum. Former Federal Reserve Governor Frederic Mishkin said yesterday that while the central bank will complete its $600 billion bond-purchase program, a third round of so- called quantitative easing to spur growth is unlikely.
Treasury Yields
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was at 3.35% today after falling to as low as 2.33 in October, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It will advance to 3.53% by year-end, according to a Bloomberg survey of 66 banks and securities companies, with the most recent forecasts given the heaviest weightings.
Berkshire issued the debt through its Berkshire Hathaway Finance Corp. unit and plans to use the proceeds to repay floating-rate notes maturing this year, it said in a regulatory filing yesterday. It has $1.5 billion due on Jan. 11, Bloomberg data show. Buffett didn't immediately respond to a request for comment e-mailed to his assistant, Carrie Kizer, outside normal business hours in the U.S.
Berkshire guarantees all of Berkshire Hathaway Finance's debt, Moody's Investors Service said in a statement yesterday.
The company, whose holdings range from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. to General Re Corp. and Fruit of the Loom Ltd., last sold public debt in December when it issued $500 million of 2.45%, five-year notes at a spread of 85 basis points, or 0.85 percentage point, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Floating Versus Fixed
In the floating-rate portion of the new debt Berkshire is paying 10 basis points less than in its last benchmark sale of similar-tenor securities. The company sold $2 billion of one- year securities, $1.1 billion of two-year notes and $1.2 billion of three-year debt in February, the data show. The 2013 notes, which priced at a spread of 43 basis points more than three- month Libor, traded at 100.55 cents on the dollar yesterday, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
When Buffett announced the $26 billion acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe in November 2009, he described the railroad company as an "all-in wager" on the U.S. economy.
"Management believes that the credit crisis has abated and as a result, interest rates for investment grade issuers relative to government obligations have declined," Berkshire Hathaway said Nov. 5 in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Stock Rally
Yesterday the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rallied to its highest close since Sept. 3, 2008 after the Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index climbed to 57 last month from 56.6 in November. Increased spending by American consumers and business investment is helping drive production gains at factories that make up about 11% of the U.S. economy.
Investors demand 166 basis points of extra yield to hold U.S. corporate debt instead of government securities, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch's U.S. Corporate Master Index.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. managed yesterday's bond sale, Berkshire said in its regulatory filing.
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Fed "quarantines" $110 billion in bungled U.S. dollars

From The Daily Crux:

Counter to what we've been hearing about Ben Bernanke firing up the printing presses, the Fed has actually stopped them.

New $100 bills were being touted as more secure, but the printing presses can't handle the technology. So more than 1 billion unusable bills will have to be destroyed.

This equals about 10% of of the entire U.S. cash supply…

Read full article...
More government stupidity:

END GAME: The Federal Reserve is now bailing out the world

Must-read: The airport security story you won't see anywhere else

Today's entertainment: The Fed's "Quantitative Easing" is finally explained

View the original article here