Sometimes the often-breathless lead summary of Chris Nelson's always invaluable Nelson Report is worth passing on in toto ...

Summary: U.S. stock market, Dollar matched…until Bush's UN speech on Iraq. But since October, foreign exchange markets stopped using U.S. stocks as proxy for financing U.S. current account deficit. Lessons: will Neo-con ambitions be curtailed by the weak link of U.S. debt? Will BOJ see weak Dollar as reason for Yen intervention, not structural reform? Effect on other U.S. trade partners? In meantime, Federal Reserve in a bit of trap…using the "deflation" word risks deflationary expectations in the markets.

Chile FTA…support from trade community, and lack of complaints from Capitol Hill, means Chile "punishment" for Iraq War UN vote being lifted. Expect Chile, Singapore FTA's together in June.

Cabinet meeting on N. Korea…Powell skips out to prior UN meeting, so no policy swings possible.

Nelson notes that in the cabinet meeting today Powell was a no-show, leaving Jim Kelly to face Rumsfeld and Cheney on his own. Ouch ...

First Kelly has to spend all that time in Chez-SARS. Now this? The guy once called me a practitioner of "hack journalism." But even I don't think he deserves this.