Buddy, can you spare a dollar? [US currency crisis]

The Belfast Telegraph ^ | 12/10/2004 | Rupert Cornwell

[UlsterDavy]

Parts I believe, other parts are BiaSed

[zek157]

Hmmm, what will happen with EU exports? I guess AirBus's will cost about 30% more now? A bottle of French whine?

This isn't entirely a bad thing.

[Bigh4u2]

In the future, if Europe wants to do business with the U.S. it will have to stop the rampant INFLATION in their country.

Or they just might go broke.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

And the problem with the cheap dollar affects who?

Heeheeheeheeheehee...

[FreedomNeocon]

Of course its not completely a 'bad' thing. Too much of ANY thing is a bad thing.

Greenspan is loving the 'slow growth', keeping rates low. Dollar is pretty darn low right now, so its expensive overseas, but sales (exports) are 'cheaper' for them so they rises and more profit is made, thus more jobs and confidence and rising dollar.

Then it all reverses itself.

I always laugh at the economic alarmists who look at a 'snapshot' of a few weeks, or a month... hell some cycles are years long.

In the end... sound fundamentals, a highly dynamic market, educated/skilled labor pool, and republican leadership... we'll have our ups and downs but in the end we'll be at least 'slightly' better.

[taxed2death]

I always get a kick out of these articles...when they state that only 20% of Americans have passports. Big Deal! The US is so darned big...and we have so many beautiful National and State parks....as well as sub Arctic (Alaska) areas, tropical areas and every concievable climate in between....that unless one wants to be harassed by rude euro weenies, or sweat to death in some turd world swill-hole we do not NEED a reason to leave the good ole US of A.

"We got it all".

[G.Mason]

"It may not be easy in this Bush-hating era, but a little sympathy nonetheless is surely in order for American visitors to Europe."

Oh sure, pitty the poor American tourist.

These worldly American tourists certainly don't mind supporting socialism in Europe, do they?

I mean ... I mean ... they don't mind supporting it here at home.

Hey mister ... could you spare me the change er ... uh ... dollars for a cup of Starbucks coffee?

[wu_trax]

because i love to say the same thing 50,000 times in the 50,000 threads about this subject:
without a lower standard of living in the US the cheaper dollar doesnt change a thing.

[Moonman62]

Just possibly, the dollar as global brand is now going the same way as our pound half a century earlier. The parallels should not be exaggerated, for the relative clout of the US is far greater than that of Britain, even in its imperial heyday. But the implications for America's global dominance are ominous nonetheless.

Wishful thinking from a flaccid European.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

The lower dollar means everything we buy from abroad, like crude oil, gasoline, steel, etc., are all CHEAPER.

That lowers our costs.

Who wants a lower standard of living??? The kids would have to give up their cell phones and TV's. ;)

[wu_trax]

something i already wrote somewhere else:

Lets say the dollar keeps falling. what happens? there are a few possibilities:
a) you don't have (enough of) the stuff you import, example oil and probably other raw-materials. the price for those goods will rise and there isnt much you can do about it. US-companies that use those raw-materials to produce their goods will also have to rise their prices. Inflation.
b) you could produce a certain good on your own, but stoped it, because the costs were too high. On the short term, prices for those goods will also rise, because you can't restart production from one day to the other. After a while production in the us would start again, but the costs for it would be still higher than before the fall of the dollar (or there would have been no sense in outsorcing to another country in the first place). also 'some' inflation.

so far we got higher prices. The wages within the US can't rise, because that would destroy the competitive advantage you get out of the fallen dollar. (It doesn't make any difference to me as a european if an american product costs 100€ because its production costs 100$ and the exchange rate is 1:1 or if it costs 100€ because its production costs 130$ and the exchangerate is 1:1.3; works within the US the same way)

so we got higher prices and constant wages, that means a lower standard of living for the people in the US. how much good it will do you for the exports to other countries, i dont know, but i expect the rest of the world to fall into a recession if the us-market is gone. if i loose my job, i wont buy much, no matter how cheap american products are.

[Question_Assumptions]

This is how trade imbalances correct themselves...

[Cicero]

When everyone talks about a falling dollar, that probably means the trend is about over.

The dollar's fall has been reversed the past few days, and gold and silver have had a sharp correction. I suspect that China, Japan, and the Euros have gotten together and decided to buy dollars, for the short term at least, and maybe to singe some of the American banks that have been enriching themselves in the "carry trade."

I expect the dollar's fall will probably resume, but in the intermediate term it appears to have stabilized.

[Brit_Guy]

You what? The lower dollar means everything you get from abroad is more EXPENSIVE!!!!!

This increases your costs! Now go back to economics 101 and concentrate harder ;)!

As everyone keeps pointing out though, the flip side of that is that your goods are cheaper for foreigners which is good for your manufactures whose exports become more competative. (unless they rely on foreign components in which case it is all a double edged sword!)

[processing please hold]

So do I. I eat them up and giggle as I do so.

[#1CTYankee]

"The marked $10 bill that cracked the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case and sent Bruno Hauptmann to the electric chair in 1936 would have been as familiar in 1996. Fickle francs, perfidious pounds and lightweight lire might change their shape and colour every few years."

Familiar but quite different, not just a $10 bill but a $10 Gold Certificate. Passing these in depression era America was not the way to go unnoticed.
Bad analogy

[muib]

In the future, if Europe wants to do business with the U.S. it will have to stop the rampant INFLATION in their country.

Or they just might go broke.

I don't know what the hell you're trying to say (you probably don't know yourself), but inflation is about the same in the EU. Except for Eastern Europe it's actually a lot lower in most EU countries. I know that in Finland it was like 0.2% annually last summer.

If anything high Eurozone inflation would help the dollar; instead what we're seeing is that a sinking dollar is keeping inflation in the EU low, despite a rising oil price. The European industry has been shielded to some extent from a rising oil price by a falling dollar - as opposed to the oil-guzzling US.

[oldleft]

This is one of the biggest steaming piles I've ever seen.

As I try to point out, a strong currency can indicate an economy is about to collapse due to lack of real capital. Just look at Japan in 1994. The yen was about 95 to the dollar.

I like the throwing in of China as a major US bond holder as well, which it is not. The Chinese economy is about %12 of the US and about %30 of the Japanese economies. I've noticed this is one of the new liberal lines, that China's about to become the predominate economic power on the globe. Considering that Hong Kong is still %15 of their economic output I would say they have a ways to go.

[Grampa Dave]

Rupert Cornwell should stick what he does best, writing articles pushing for gay agenda. Of course even when it is pushing the Gay agenda, it writes hate articles about GW, Republicans and Christian Americans.

http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=Rupert%20Cornwell%20Gay

Cornwell = another GIM.*

*See my tagline below about GIMS.

[little jeremiah]

It's amazing what you ferret out, Grampa Dave! And they're only 2% of the population, and they aren't all journalists. Or maybe they are?