We're big pants people!
Posted on 07/02/2008 12:40:47 PM PDT by Shermy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush reiterated on Wednesday that his administration believed in a strong dollar, and said the currency would reflect the relative strength of the economy.
"We're strong dollar people in this administration, and have always been for a strong dollar, and believe that the relative strengths of our economy will reflect that," Bush told reporters at a news conference ahead of his trip to Japan for a meeting of the Group of Eight rich nations.
Inflation is expected to be high on the G8 agenda next week. Some countries have blamed the weak dollar in part for pushing up prices for oil and other commodities.
Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have repeatedly expressed their belief in a strong dollar, only to see the currency fade. The euro hit a two-month high against the dollar on Wednesday.
/snip
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
laughable. I bet the market barely responds anymore to this sort of claptrap. What is he going to do, tell the truth, “We believe in a weak dollar...”
Anyone feel a rate cut coming soon?
He’s sure got a weird way of showing it.
No, just the opposite.
Is he back on the sauce?
We're big pants people!
What is he supposed to do? There is no way this Congress is going to pass tax reform now.
George W. Bush <= Liar
“We’re strong dollar people in this administration, and have always been for a strong dollar...”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
This coming from an administration that has had complete Republican control of everything for a period of time and STILL managed to drive the national debt sky high. And where does the money come from? Borrowing and prinitng friends... borrowing and printing. But don’t worry. Sleep well tonight know that your dollar is “strong”.
Sorry...but he's already become a "lame buck" President.
I wish he wouldn’t do that. We haven’t defended the dollar in years. It has been his policy not to for at least four or five years.
I like ya, George. I do.
Now don’t let the White House door hit you in the behind.
Is this from scrappleface?
I agree there is nothing much he can do about it now. Numerous past opportunities were squandered on his watch, however.
Reading this - it's the first time I've actually felt embarrassed.
He’s on ‘coast’ — just trying to coast his way to January 09, so someone else can take over the problems.
“We believe that a weak dollar is going to insulate America from China currency irresponsibility, European double dealing, and international oil price gouging. Let us know how your self serving policies have worked out for you.”
IMHO Bush's Treasury secretaries have been a pretty poor and ineffective bunch.
He's been telling this fairytale since 2001. He always adds that the market should determine the strength of the dollar. Traders interpret that as he won't have the Treasury intervene, which means the dollar will get weaker given his horrible economic policies.
Sorry W ain’t buying what you’re sellin about being a “strong dollar guy”.
The dollar is plummetting. Don’t give me “the dollar is strong” claptrap.
They've backed themselves, and all of us into a corner, and know that rasing rates is like throwing a match into a near empty gas tank.
“Yer doin’ a great job, Bernie!”
Oh brother.
Yesterday, Bush said we need to drill in ANWR and off the continental shelf so we could reduce our dependence on oil. OK.
Let’s hope so. If they start lending the dollar away for free, we’re in big trouble.
By “strong” Bush must be referring to the Dollar’s tensile strength in its use as toilet paper, because he couldn’t possibly be referring to its function as currency.
No kidding, and what did the Fed do yesterday? Auction another 75 billion. Yeah, that has done a lot of good, yet that will “strengthen” the dollar.
Cut me a break Gdub! Your fiscial policy sucks, but at least we are safe, I’ll give you that.
We're a little too far down the road for jawboning to do much good. Raising rates would strengthen the dollar. But, along with that comes even more damage to the housing market, even more weakness in banks and financial institutions and a greater burden for those who carry credit card debt, already staggering under the current load. Can't lower the rate, either, or we'll really see the bottom fall out of the dollar.
W wanted puppets in that position. Paulson is going around today spreading the Carteresque message that home prices will continue to fall. Needless to say W has destroyed everything Republicans have accomplished since Reagan.
The whole goal IMO was to make trade with the United States more desirable. Our goods cost less because our dollar is so weak. The problem is, everything we buy from overseas is more expensive. And there’s where oil comes in.
The problem was, our trade deficits were reaching one trillion per year, and something had to be done to make that look a lot better. More purchases from the U.S., good. Higher prices on imports, we’ll, not so good.
Then you have nation’s like China that slap a 40% import fee on our goods. Free Trade. LMAO. Not coining a new one here, but is it really free?
Nothing in life is, and I think we’ve paid a heavy price.
I wouldn’t address the current value of the dollar unless I was about to take my policy out and give it a good dusting. And the price of oil being what it is, perhaps Bush is about to support the dollar (like he always has). LOL
Prove it, George.
We have assets. Why don’t we sell Yellowstone Park to the Saudis for, say, 8 trillion dollars? It’s gonna blow up some day but we don’t have to tell the Saudis that.
Get ready for the weak Dollar.
Funny maybe in a year with odumbo we will be using an arab currency lol
I saw this on television earlier. I was sitting in the doctors office. Bush says “We are strong dollar people in this administration”. I say outloud “B. S !”
Not long ago, I thought this man was on his way to being a truly great President.
I wuz wrong.
honestly, the administration makes themselves look like morons even uttering the phrase ‘strong dollar.’
A very high % of folks in the market and finance believe we are intentionally devaluing our currency, both in response to out-of-control federal debt increases under bush and later due to having to monetize simply huge amount of debt instruments in the last year thanks to the cdo/mortgage issue.
This is already screwing us on petroleum to the degree the dollar’s move has contributed to the increase in oil’s dollar price (not all, but certainly some), and along with the insane ethanol BS, we have inflation out the wazoo in food and energy.
CPI will presumably dispute this, of course, for those who believe that nonsense.
I wouldn’t want to either. I agree.
You know, teams like that aren’t always easy to be found.
We were quite lucky last time IMO. Who knows if we could find a team to do it again as well as Volker and company did.
We’re playing with fire IMO.
Sometimes I wonder if even he believes himself anymore.
I would be very worried if he DID believe it.
The european union is supposed to be raising their interest rates tomorrow which will cause the dollar to drift even lower.
Wow, we can have a strong dollar and borrow our nation into bankruptcy at the same time? Who knew? Fire up the presses!
One of the very few things Jimmuh got right was appointing Volker. But, hey, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. :-))
But would you be surprised he did?
Of course he would say that, but its the precise reverse of hte truth. He and the Fed have steadily weakened the dollar since he came into office, and most especially since the wars began. We spend some $300 billion a year in Iraq alone, and that money has to come from somewhere.
This isn’t the forties, with rationing and a strongly government-directed economy, but the costs are being felt.
Most of the rise in the price of gasoline is simply the lower value of the dollar. It isn’t only gasoline that has risen, but everything, the price of concrete, the price of steel, the price of coal, the price of gold. Compare the price of each against their 2000 price and you will see that they have tracked pretty steadily the decline of the dollar.
Thats what happens. If one thing goes up, look for whats happening in that industry. If everything goes up by a factor of 3, your dollar has lost its value by 2/3. You just didn’t notice it. Advances in computing have masked part of the erosion in the dollar, and off-shoring of a lot of our economy has likewise helped to mask it.
And things normally don’t all rise and fall together, waves will wash across the economy, and then back again.
But when the price of diesel rises, everything else usually follows pretty quickly, there isn’t much that isn’t moved by truck or rail.
That sounds reasonable. I agree.
I agree. We’re just lucky he didn’t tap some leftist professor that would have just about sunk us.
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