More good news about our wonderful dollar!

[Dark]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3999825.stm

The US trade deficit - a key concern for President George W Bush's second term - exceeded $50bn for the fourth month in a row in September.

The US currency has been weakening for much of the past year, pressured by worries over the US' record $427bn budget deficit.

Carsten Fritsch, an economist with German bank Commerzbank, said he expected the euro to rise to a level of $1.35 within the next six months.

The US has got these massive deficits that nobody wants to buy into," David Bloom, a currency strategist at HSBC told the Associated Press.

I'd love an economic conservative to explain to me how Bush has helped the economy.

He'd probably say 'It's all Clinton's fault!'.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Of cousre it is Clinton's fault

for RadCons personal responsibility is a value to demand from true fiscal conservatives

[Verve]

2. Ironically the weakened dollar has helped my husband's struggling

manufacturing company. International companies are now looking to buy products made in the U.S. now that the dollar is weak. It's laughable that Bush's lack of a plan economic policy is helping the surviving midwest manufacturing companies. (I say surviving because many companies tanked these last four years). Go Chimp!!! HA! HA!

[StClone]

6. That is Bush's Economic Plan

By letting the dollar slide we export more...so the story goes. But resistance to buying American is rampant in the world. Glad your husband found a bright spot in Bush World.

[lastliberalintexas]

11. Not only resistance to buying American

The dollar would still have to take such an incredible tumble and American wages would have to fall to 50 year lows to make it very profitable for manufacturers to move back to the US. Even with such a weak dollar, it's hard to compete with slave workers or those making a whole $10 a week.

[StClone]

16. More than that!

When American companies compete on bids even when they are cheaper there is resistance to buy American. The AirBus deal with China may fall in that group.

[Kellanved]

8. There is some argumentation going on about that

Resources will get more expensive as well, the WTO is getting angry and the Trade Deficit Explodes - Moderate Short-Term advantages for grave mid-term trouble.

[Dzimbowicz]

3. This is why I have my savings in Swiss Francs

[Dark]

4. I thought Switzerland was on the Euro n/t

[Kellanved]

9. Switzerland? Certainly not.

Oh, they accept Euro all right, but they are neither part of the EU, nor the Eurozone.
They would be stupid to do it: Switzerland is a major international tax-evasion haven; their currency is mindbogglingly overvalued due to that. Joining the EU would threaten wide parts of the Swiss Economy (those based on evading the EU).

[Dzimbowicz]

10. They still have their own currency.

They are adamant about their neutrality. Kellanved has made some good points concerning Switzerland and their status within Europe.

[Kellanved]

5. Won't take us six months to get to €1 = $1.35

The article was written in mid-november and now, one month later we're at $1.34 ...

:eyes:

[alexisfree]

7. in numbers looks better!!

[whistle]

13. Did congress raise the debt ceiling by another $1.5 trillion....

...how will $9,073,000,000,000.00 look 15 months from now?

[whistle]

12. $55.6 billion to be exact, also the Fed set the rate up another...

... quarter of a point to 2.25%, the first straight increase in as many months. This strategy will continue as the Fed now moves to make borrowing more expensive and money tighter for the average U.S. borrower. Big corporations and the Federal Government will be unaffected by any of this and so the fiscal irresponsibility and reckless Bush economic policies, exacerbated by the continued spending on the Iraq/Afghanistan wars (yes, the military will go to capital hill yet again and ask for $80 to $85 billion more) to keep fighting and spending while troops go begging for equipment, supplies and adequate protection and the Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld just blows off question after question about where the more than $250 additional billion that congress authorized following the "Mission Accomplished" message that supposedly ended hostilities in those regions.

As the U.S. dollar is backed by the "good faith of the American Federal Government", how much longer can the dollar endure without a significant devaluation? Why is this government not considering 10 to 20 year government savings bonds in $25/$50/$100 denominations to slow down the out-flow of funds and give all Americans the same opportunity to benefit from the governments need for capital? At the moment, only big banks get to benefit while we consumers put our dollars into savings accounts and CDs that yield a fraction of what money market traders are getting. The system is rigged to the speculators. That last happened in the period leading up to the stock market crash of 1929 and the great world wide depression which lasted right up to the beginning of WW II.

[lastliberalintexas]

17. And the housing bubble bursts

It's going to be amazing to see the housing market in another year once Greenspan delivers on his threats of increasing the prime rate by several points.

But of course, the wealthier among us will make out quite nicely while they snatch up those properties for pennies on the dollar. Also similar to what happened in the 1920s with farmlands that were later developed and other properties after The Crash. Yes, history repeating itself.

[whistle]

18. My father-in-law told me a story about his windfall in 1930...

...when he was newly married for about 6 months with his own hardware business and bought a three story brick home with a large veranda, a full basement, cold storage cellar, coal furnace with central heat (this was up north in a village called Paisley in Southern Ontario Canada), water cistern, deep well for drinking, electricity, three bedrooms, upstairs, a dining room, a sitting room, a living room, a large kitchen with a pot-bellied stove, two fireplaces, and two indoor bathrooms one on the main floor and the other shared among the three bedrooms on the second floor, a partially finished attic all on a one acre lot with a picket fence and a wooden detached garage large enough for a Buick and a tool shop/work area.

He went to the local banker who had foreclosed on the house that day with $800.00 in his pocket and asked the banker what price he wanted for the house. The banker said he would listen to any offer, so Ross, that was my father-in-laws first name, said he had $800.00 cash in his pocket and would take the house off the banker's books right at that moment. The banker accepted and Ross and his bride moved in that week. The house had been worth ten to twelve times that amount just the year before and Ross being from that village all his life knew the house well.

I saw the house 35 years later (1965) and it was a great looking house at that time. It is most likely still there and I know that it would be going for well over $150,000 perhaps $175,000 today with the appropriate modern upgrades one would expect on a house of that age and quality. So, following a similar economic crash today, how many of us could walk into a bank with $15,000.00 cash in our pockets and buy a similar house outright, no mortgage, no major out-of-pocket expenditures to up-grade immediately? If you were one of Bushies rich pals who got a couple of million back in taxes, perhaps that might be the route to go as long as the money isn't in federal bonds.

[w4rma]

14. I think the Neocons are planning on DEFAULTING on these debts.

That's the only explanation of how they plan on digging America out of this hole. The US has the military so it's not like anyone could get their money back by force. It would just create a whole lot of ticked off folks around the globe.

[Dark]

15. They're already ticked off at us. But no one would ever trust us again.

[whistle]

19. Bankruptcy is a right guaranteed by the constitution...

[Doctor_J]

20. My asshole broker wouldn't buy currency

I tried 6-8 months ago to get himto buy Euros and such. He's a serious KoolAid drinker and believes that Bush's Boom is right around the corner, still thinking the dollar's going to roar back. I gotta get a Dem money guy.