The dollar’s problems didn’t stop with the euro. The greenback also reached a fresh 33-year low against Canada’s currency, a 23-year low against the Australian dollar and dipped to its weakest point in three months against the U.K. pound.

The US is doing everything it can to raise the price of oil. Is this some roundabout give away to ethanol producers?

The conflict between Turkey and Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, combined with new U.S. sanctions against Iran announced Thursday, fueled further buying in overnight trade. Futures hit an all-time intraday high of $92.22 before retreating slightly to the $91 range.

The gold bugs and hard money crowd continue to have their day in the sun:

Foreclosure filings across the U.S. nearly doubled last month compared with September 2006, as financially strapped homeowners already behind on mortgage payments defaulted on their loans or came closer to losing their homes to foreclosure, a real estate information company said Thursday.

A weak dollar and credit market fears have cause traders to see safety in gold :

Dealers and analysts said that fund buyers, seeking safe stores for their cash due to continuing unease over problems in credit markets, had the bit between their teeth and would eventually targeting a record high above $800.

Commodities headed for the biggest monthly gain in 32 years, led by wheat, crude oil and gold, as the dollar’s slump enhanced the appeal of energy, grains and precious metals as a hedge against inflation.

The 19-commodity Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index was up 8.7 percent this month, the most since July 1975. Wheat climbed to a record in September amid a global grain shortfall, boosting corn and soybeans. Oil also hit a record, and gold reached a 27-year high. The Federal Reserve cut borrowing costs to bolster the U.S. economy, sending the dollar tumbling.

Crude-oil futures rallied past $83 a barrel Thursday, sending the expiring benchmark contract further into uncharted territory as the market continued to draw support from a decline a bigger-than-expected decline in U.S. crude inventories.

…Peter Schiff, chief executive officer of Darien, Connecticut-based brokerage Euro Pacific Capital, with $700 million in customer accounts. “These are ideal conditions for gold. The fact that gold hasn’t risen means there’s a lot of complacency out there. People aren’t panicked yet.”

We do not make the following statement readily, nor lightly, but we are making it here nonetheless: We are witnessing a watershed shift of sentiment in the global capital markets that shall be with us for some very long while; shall guide us as to how we structure positions for a very long while, and shall cause immeasurable damage to many markets, many funds (hedge and mutual!) and many individuals that shall be felt for years into the future. Our tongue-in-cheek admonition that “there is never one cockroach” is going to become rather too well known and too often repeated in the coming days and weeks as the world becomes more and more and more aware of the fact that the problems felt by Bear Stearns several weeks ago were but the very tip of a very large and very cold iceberg. The contagion is indeed spreading from one area of the mortgage market to another, and before this cycle of liquidation has run its course it will spread to the better… indeed to the very best… names on Wall Street, Lombard Street, Bay Street et al.

Scary stuff. You can subscribe and read the whole thing at www.thegartmanletter.com

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

…

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”

…

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will bum,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return.