TIME FACTOR
Pimpernickel
Flaming Sickle
Brimstone and Treacle
Purple Pickle

POE? Nevermore...
From the Philippine Inquirer:
THE PESO dropped to its lowest levels against the dollar on Thursday as the market scrambled for dollars on worries over the candidacy of movie actor Fernando Poe Jr. for president and a possible downgrade of the country's debt ratings from Moody's Investor Services, analysts said.

"FPJ has created further risk and this is how the market reacted," Astro del Castillo, director of the Association of Securities Analysts of the Philippines (ASAP) told INQ7.net.

"The market is very concerned right now," technical analyst Fitzgerald Aclan said in a separate interview.

"It's a speculative trade, with the market focused largely on the bad news. And in a jittery market, the focus on the bad news is exaggerated," a commercial bank dealer told AFX Asia.

The peso slid to 55.85 to the dollar shortly after it opened at 55.80. It closed at 55.69 on volume of 168 million dollars.

But I guess it COULD just be propaganda. Take a look at this opposing view from... the opposition:

MALACANANG is behind the manipulation of the Philippine peso that has fallen to its lowest, a day after popular movie actor Fernando Poe Jr. announced his candidacy for president, a staunch supporter of Poe in the Senate said Thursday.

"That's a manipulation of Malacanang, that's the angle they will try to project to blame FPJ (the actor's initials) for the depreciation of the peso," Minority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III said in a telephone interview.

Sotto said they expected negative reports to hound Poe in the coming days.

Meanwhile, we suffer the effects of their shenanigans.

Shenanigans?
she·nan·i·gan ( P ) Pronunciation Key (sh-nn-gn)
n. Informal

1. A deceitful trick; an underhanded act.
Remarks intended to deceive; deceit. Often used in the plural.

2. A playful or mischievous act; a prank.
Mischief; prankishness. Often used in the plural.