My personal favourite is Snow's redefining of the concept of "strong dollar" - apparently when he claimed to continue supporting a strong dollar policy while USD fell 30% against other major currencies, he was talking about a currency that is hard to counterfeit. Unreal...
Snow's Redefined `Strong Dollar' May Extend Slide (Update1)
quote.bloomberg.com
Deauville, France, May 19 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, just three months into the job, has scrapped the government's eight-year-old ``strong-dollar policy,'' investors and economists said.
A week ago, Snow said the dollar's 21 percent decline against the euro in the past year was helping U.S. exports. He repeated that theme during the week and on Saturday delivered what some traders consider the coup de grace: At the close of a Group of Seven finance ministers meeting in France, he characterized the dollar's drop in value as ``fairly modest.''
The strategy of U.S. Treasury secretaries urging a so-called ``strong dollar'' has ``been abandoned,'' said Paul McCulley, a managing director at Pacific Investment Management Co., which manages the world's biggest bond fund.
Investors say the most telling remark, one that shows Snow's tolerance for a lower dollar and gives them confidence to keep selling the currency, came when he described the dollar's drop as ``fairly modest.'' That followed a March observation that the dollar's fall was not ``troubling.''
In a market where nuance matters, investors said Snow's commentary marked a seismic shift.
Pressed by reporters to define what he means by a ``strong dollar'' Snow replied, ``What you want to be strong is you want people to have confidence in your currency.'' That means it is accepted by people, is a store of value and is hard to counterfeit, he said. |
