Meanwhile back at the ranch--News on the Economic front

Even though the Labor Department is known to massage its statistics, the numbers are so bad that its latest report registers an increase in the Producer Price Index of 1.2% in July and 9.8% in the last year. CNN carries the story. Even with a dip in oil prices over the last month, CNN says that this is the highest rate of increase in the past 27 years. The Dow is sinking and should dip below 11,000 once again. It well may test new lows in the next couple of days. Bloomberg indicates that Lehman Brothers may be the next corporate welfare client.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. may write down about $4 billion in credit-related investments and other assets when it reports fiscal third-quarter earnings, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts said. ``The credit environment continues to be difficult,'' New York-based analysts led by Kenneth Worthington wrote in a report yesterday. ``It will be another difficult quarter for Lehman.'' Lehman may mark down some of its $61 billion of mortgage and other asset-backed securities after benchmark residential and commercial mortgage-related indexes declined by as much as 20 percent, the analysts wrote. The company may have already been selling some commercial mortgage assets, they added.