  We analyze high-field current fluctuations in degenerate conductors by
mapping the electronic Fermi-liquid correlations at equilibrium to their
semiclassical non-equilibrium form. Our resulting Boltzmann description is
applicable to diffusive mesoscopic wires. We derive a non-equilibrium
connection between thermal fluctuations of the current and resistive
dissipation. In the weak-field limit this is the canonical fluctuation-
dissipation theorem. Away from equilibrium, the connection enables explicit
calculation of the excess ``hot-electron'' contribution to the thermal
spectrum. We show that excess thermal noise is strongly inhibited by Pauli
exclusion. This behaviour is generic to the semiclassical metallic regime.
