Another psuedo-crisis passes
Powerline
Remember the hand-wringing last year about the declining value of the dollar? For some, this phenonmenon was evidence not only that President Bush's economic policies were a disaster, but that the more enlightened European economy was about to supplant ours in the world pecking order.
These days, the left isn't talking about the value of the dollar. That's because the dollar has been surging for months. As USA Today reports:
The dollar rose Tuesday against the euro to the highest level in nearly 14 months and hit multimonth highs against other currencies, including the Japanese yen. The dollar is up 10% against a basket of major currencies this year, according to the Federal Reserve.
And this trend is expected to continue at least through 2005.
Why is the dollar doing so well? USA Today says it's because of "the comparative strength of the U.S. economy, particularly in relation to the much weaker European economy." The rise of the dollar itself, however, is neither a blessing nor a curse for our economy. As we said when the dollar was falling, there are winners and losers within our economy when the value of the dollar fluctuates.
Posted by Paul at 11:13 PM | Permalink
Only in America
Leftists who demonize President Bush and former Attorney General Ashcroft may be surprised to learn that the Justice Department has been helping former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich deal with legal problems that arose from his campaign. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer (scroll down), Ashcroft's Justice Department ordered the U.S. Attorney in Cleveland to defend a libel suit brought against the left-wing Congressman. That action saved Kucinich from having to hire high-priced attorneys to defend him. And it will save Kucinich from having to pay the judgment if he loses the case. Apparently, though, the case is about to be dismissed.
The underlying suit stems from Kucinich's attempt, during his presidential campaign, to defend himself from charges that he started his political career as a racist. Kucinich's defense was that certain racist pamphlets associated with one of his early campaigns were the responsibility of a man named Socha, and that Kucinich distanced himself from the pamphlets. When Kucinich published this defense, Socha sued him for defamation. The Justice Department stepped in to defend Kucinich on the generous theory that, even though the statement in question was uttered by Kucinich in furtherance of his presidential campaign, the statement also helped him preserve his effectiveness as a Congressman, and thus was made in the scope of his government employment.
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