Monetary Wake Up Call
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Money, Quotes“The euro, worth 83 cents in the early George W. Bush years, is at $1.45. The British pound is back up over $2, the highest level since the Carter era. The Canadian dollar, which used to be worth 65 cents, is worth more than the U.S. dollar for the first time in half a century. Oil is over $90 a barrel. Gold, down to $260 an ounce not so long ago, has hit $800.”
- Pat Buchanan in a new op-ed, Sinking Currency, Sinking Country
November 12th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Consider these developments a down payment on learning the hard way that, thanks to George W. Bush’s rendition of trickle-down economics, plus two wars financed on foreign credit and three quarters of a trillion in annual trade deficits, we Americans have been enjoying a Potemkin-Village prosperity.
Bush’s bad policy might be based on a C-student’s poorly recalled dictum from a great Republican president: You can fool all of the people all of the time.
November 12th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Well, Paleo-conservatives like Pat Buchanan should be happy about the shrinking dollar, since he hates outsourcing and trade deficits so much. A decreasing dollar encourages foreigners to buy products from here, discoursages them from selling products to here, and encourages manufacturers to stay in the U.S. and hire American labor.
November 12th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
The payoff lines come 2 paragraphs later:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Is it all Bush’s fault? Nope.
The dollar is plunging because America has been living beyond her means, borrowing $2 billion a day from foreign nations to maintain her standard of living and to sustain the American Imperium.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ f Of course it isn’t Bush’s fault, yet in the very next line he explains exactly why it it. Well, Greenspan & Bernanke helped out here also.
Thank you, Pat, for describing to us just how big a mess we are in. Pat is right, but noticeably absent is any hint of a way to work through the rough times ahead.
Oh wait . . .tax cuts for the rich?
November 13th, 2007 at 5:03 am
I don’t know the guys name, but watching CNBC last week, I saw some investment pundit ranting about the currency issue, and say something like this: “If you look at the US as if it was a company, and showed anyone a chart of of the US currency performance the last five years saying it was a stock price, anyone would say that company is a basket case and the CEO should be fired.”
An on-topic anecdote. I am currently on an adventure holiday touring West Africa (Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso). These are not rich countries. Mali is one of the poorest on the planet. Street vendors are continually trying to sell you anything and everything. But street vendors will not take US dollars. CFAs and Euros are fine, but not dollars. If you insist on paying with dollars, they charge double the Euro rate - worse than the actual exchange rate.
The dollar is apparently an unreliable currency, even by West Africa street vendor standards.
Just sayin…