A little shakeup is needed now and then in the business world, and last week plenty of things turned upside down.

With the U.S. Federal Reserve being more aggressive about its rate cut than many investors expected, Wall Street continued its wild ride, mostly rising on the news. Oil prices shot to record highs, and the U.S dollar was weaker than it had been for quite some time.

Those factors played a roll in strengthening some foreign currencies, including the Canadian dollar, which reached parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time in more than 30 years. The euro also rose to record highs against the greenback.

It’s a lot to chew on, and it’ll be interesting to see what business people make of these developments. The half-percentage- point cut of short-term rates may have addressed the tightening credit that’s been taking place lately, but it sure doesn’t help people who are actually trying to save money.

Oil prices seem to have many experts scratching their heads, since a slowdown in the economy and less travel now that summer is over usually means less demand.

While an at-par Canadian dollar could be good news for Whatcom County, a weak U.S. dollar is a concern nationally.

Hopefully you’ve had some time to digest the national news, because some interesting local data also came out last week:

While foreclosure filings continued to rise in Washington state and across the country, a curious thing happened in Whatcom County: Foreclosure filings have gone down the past three months, according to Realty- Trac Inc., a California-based firm that tracks foreclosure filings across the country. In May there were 34 foreclosure filings locally, then they were down in June (33 filings), July (22 filings), and August (20 filings). August’s number is slightly more than in August 2006 (16 filings).

Last month’s foreclosure filing numbers equate to one foreclosure filing for every 4,147 Whatcom County households. That’s much better than the state average (one foreclosure filing for every 1,310 households) and the national average (one foreclosure for every 510 households).

It doesn’t appear that foreclosures will be a big problem in the near term either. Subprime, adjustable-rate loans represented 6 percent of loans in the state in June, much lower than the national average of 20 percent, according to research done by Washington Realtors, which looked at data by Freddie Mac and Loan Performance, a mortgage information provider. With the credit tightening, that 6 percent should continue to drop.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis came out with personal income numbers for the second quarter. Washington ranked second in the nation with 1.8 percent growth, behind Utah (2.0 percent growth). The national average was 1.2 percent growth. Personal income is money gained by all sources, including wages, rental income and money received on assets.

Washington’s strong growth was not seen by its neighbors. Oregon (1.2 percent growth) was right at the national average, while Alaska (1 percent growth) and Idaho (0.9 percent growth) were below average.

In the coming months the bureau will release data about personal income in metro areas through 2006, so we’ll see if Whatcom County is riding the state’s income growth.