Office of the United States Trade Representative For Immediate Release: February 5, 2010 Joint Statement from United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Canada's Minister of International Trade, Peter Van Loan, on US-Canada Agreement on Government Procurement Issues The United States and Canada have reached a tentative agreement on government procurement. The agreement is subject to completion of our respective domestic approval processes. This agreement has two major elements.

The dollar hit a 15-month low today leading to "concern over the future of the dollar as the central currency in the global economy" (Financial Times). The prices of gold and oil continue to rise as the US unemployment stats hit new lows. At a roundtable discussion with Japanese reporters, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner repeated his support for maintaining a strong dollar.

(Excerpt from National Post ) A year has passed since the tumult surrounding the collapse of Lehman Brothers pushed the already sinking global economy into its worst recession in the post-war period. Much has changed in that year, so much so that the once doomed U.S. economy -- the epicentre of the global downfall -- has turned full circle and is now widely projected to be out of recession.

Eric Lam, Financial Post

Keir Clark, Telegraph-Journal

The Brookings Institution