• The U.S. super committee, tasked with tackling structural deficit issues, cannot get beyond party ideologies concerning taxes and social program cuts. The exercise will end with a whimper, bringing on mandatory cuts across programs, and another ding to already ridiculously low approval ratings for Congress. From Reuters News.
• Japanese exports fell 3.7% in October from last year. That rate of decline was unexpected and hints at more economic slowdown across Asia. From Bloomberg News.
• Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan outlined a dour global economic outlook. He told the visiting U.S. commerce secretary that China is more concerned about managing it’s own economic health than dealing with global imbalances. From Reuters News.
• In a sign of just how scary it has been around the globe this year, foreign dollar deposits at the Federal Reserve have doubled since the end of 2010 to $715B. Even with all of its structural issues, the U.S. has seen demand for dollar asset liquidity and relative safety. From Bloomberg News.