Dollar tumbles as huge credit crunch looms

The Telegraph ^ | 7/25/2007 | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

[bruinbirdman]

The google search says "Results 1 - 10 of about 605 for yitbos". There are actually 10s of thousands.

Heck "bruinbirdman" has more than 16,000.

yitbos

[n-tres-ted]

Ambrose is a very reputable reporter, but the sources he quotes don’t make sense to me. The dollar is weak when there is too much liquidity, yet the fear of a credit crunch is stated as the cause. U. S. monetary policy is definitely at fault, and it’s causing a loss of confidence in the dollar IMO.

[bruinbirdman]

"Ambrose is a very reputable reporter, but the sources he quotes don’t make sense to me."

I don't think "reputable" and "sources ... don't make sense" go together.

He wrote a good book about Clinton. He reports well from Europe. I think "business" is not his forte. Maybe National Enquirer.

yitbos

[balch3]

We’re DOOMED! /sarc

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

Your U.S. salary next week will still be the same whether the Dollar goes up or down 50%...but countries that export goods to the U.S. see wild swings in prices based on the Dollar’s value.

___________________________________________________
That might be so....but my dollar isn’t buying what it use to. I see inflatation.

[bruinbirdman]

"We’re DOOMED!"

If the euruble is so strong, why do the Eurostani markets follow US markets? They should lead.

FTSE = UK
DAX = Deutschland
CAC = Frogland
NIKKEI = Japland
Hang Seng = King Kong

7/24/2007

World Markets

• Europe
• America
• Asia

FTSE 100

FTSE 100

6,498.70

-1.90%

DAX

7,806.79

-1.73%

CAC 40

5,907.47

-1.62%

DJIA

DJIA

13,717.00

-1.62%

S&P 500

1,511.04

-1.98%

NASDAQ 100

2,000.55

-1.76%

NIKKEI 225

NIKKEI 225

17,833.80

-0.93%

HANG SENG

23,395.00

-0.33%

More market data

Delayed by 15 minutes
Data from Hemscott

yitbos

[The Duke]

Does character count yet?

[bruinbirdman]

If it includes a sense of humor.

yitbos

[Southack]

"That might be so....but my dollar isn’t buying what it use to. I see inflatation."

A little inflation is good...keeps people from just stuffing money into their mattresses.

A bad thing would be DEflation. Home prices plummeting, salaries falling, that sort of thing.

In the mean time, enjoy cheaper prices on telephone calls (some phone calls from the U.S. to international destinations were once $12 per minute back in the 1960's!) and lower priced computers, music, and movie DVD's.

[bruinbirdman]

"In the mean time, enjoy cheaper prices "

Sounds like deflation. A gig of memory cost $50 bucks 15 years ago.

I know one thing. I am better off now than I was 30 years ago.

yitbos

[montanajoe]

I travel internationally alot. Since Jan 2005 my dollars are worth less .... it takes $1250 or $1300 to buy what $1000 got then.

Its amazing to me that this has been going on for two and one half years with no one taking much notice....except for those who have to spend their US dollars internationally.

[Rummenigge]

There’s no endless sales market for a cheap dollar america.

Think about investment goods.

There are goods that come from a single source that now rise in price.

Germany e.g. (i live there, maybe it’s a bad example here but that’s one I know quite well) has an increase in export orders of 9% last 3 month - allthough the dollar is high. BASF is increasing commodity prices for chemicals every month and extending capacity - all a high dollar will cost them is a bit of earning before interests and taxes.

China certainly will change some reserves from euro to dollar and that’s gonna bring down their US exports business - but to what degree ? There’s vast leeward space between the costs for chineese products and american products - if a cheap dollar should cause them trouble then it has to fall more then just 50% against the renminbi.

As opposed to ancient times Europe can sell it’s products against euro in russia and brasil - india and china are to follow.

If I have a glance at the DJ companies many of them are not only selling overseas but mainly produce overseas - so the
production costs will be paid partialy and to a growing degree in non-dollar currencies.

Good example is Boeing - they have long term contracts - but they cannot afford their contractors to go belly up - so what are they going to tell japanese manufacturers of the 787 wings if the dollar tanked against the yen ? They have to raise prices so a fair salery for their contractors can be offered.

Maybe they can shift production inside the US - but they will lose the advantage of binding customers via work packages and loose the buying power for foreign technologies.

[cavador]

1914-War
1920's -Depression
1939-War
1980 Depression
2001 -War
2007 -Depression
200? -War
Do I interpret a trend here?

[bruinbirdman]

"2007 -Depression
200? -War
Do I interpret a trend here?"

Do I interpret wishful thinking there?

yitbos

[GovernmentIsTheProblem]

“Ok, well I give up! You’d probably try to tell me that’s some verbal greeting as part of a secret handshake of NSA guys/gals for special evesdropping corps of the Bush/Cheney administration, or somethin like that.”

It’s a dumb fraternity thing.

see http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/10189

[Jimmy Valentine]

Well I agree in the main, but the sub=prime problem is going to cause some serious damage. We are about two years out on a reconciliation of this sector of the market, I think.

[gcruse]

LOL

[gcruse]

The Roaring 20s were a depression?

[RightWhale]

Kind of odd, although not unexpected, to see this headline after the dollar has been sitting a couple weeks at a level and is up slightly against the Euro today.

[gcruse]

I’m surprised at Ambrose’s biased reporting on the US economy. Now I have to wonder at the quality of his Whitewater investigation, much as I enjoyed it at the time.