The dollar has weakened this past week, but the question on everyone’s mind is how bad is the US economy really doing? Hopefully next week’s heavy data calendar and testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will shed more light on the state of the US economy and monetary policy. With the exception of producer prices, we expect more dollar bearish news and would actually be surprised if Bernanke had anything positive to say about the US economy. The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates by 225bp since August and it will be interesting to see if this has helped existing or new home sales in the month of January. According to the NAHB housing market index, bottom fishers are slowly beginning to sniff out the inventory, but just because they are sniffing do not mean that they are buying. Durable goods, fourth quarter GDP, personal income, personal spending and the Chicago PMI reports are also expected to be released, which means that a volatile week is in store for the currency market. There is a good chance that another round of weak US economic data could drive the US dollar to a record low against the Euro. We continue to believe that the next 2 months of retail sales and non-farm payrolls data will be particularly weak because the last time that we have seen service sector ISM fall to the levels that it did back in January was in 2001 and at that time, non-farm payrolls dropped 300k. In some ways, the latest crisis to the US economy is worse than 2001 which means that the 17k job loss that was reported by the Labor Department in January could pale in comparison to the losses that we could see in February

Millions of retired Americans could substantially raise their living standards throughout retirement by sending checks for tens of thousands of dollars to the Social Security Administration. That's right, to the government.

At least that's the conclusion of Boston University Professor of Economics Laurence J. Kotlikoff, who began evaluating this strategy after reading an article in Forbes that noted an obscure and surprising provision of the Social Security law.

Incredibly, a recipient can "undo" his decision to take Social Security retirement benefits early simply by paying back--without any interest or inflation adjustment--the benefits he's received. He can then re-apply for Social Security and claim the bigger monthly checks paid to those who wait until an older age to claim benefits.

Does this really pay off? Yes, if you compare the Social Security ploy with what you'd have to pay an insurance company for a similar annuity.

Kotlikoff provides this example: A couple, now both 70, claimed Social Security retirement benefits at 62, as more than half of Americans do. They now collect $11,556 each a year. If they had waited until 70 to claim benefits, they would be entitled to $20,000 each a year--even though they didn't earn more wages