I read something today that gives me a chuckle. 'as stupid as pig dribble.' Ho Ho Ho. Not very flattering comment.
re Ms. Baum, I find it interesting that those of a bearish bent happily cited her material in support of their positions '01/02 (ie on the CFZ thread) yet now that she's singing a differing pitch, she's 'swallowed a dumb pill'.
This particular article merely reinforces a message the topic of several fed speeches (one by Poole discussed earlier on this thread, one more recent by Greenspan). That there are two sides to the trade deficit story.
If foreigners insist on buying US assets, and in the process provide low cost financing for American consumer investment in housing and consumer goods, should we not thank them?
Warren Buffet says we should be concerned, and proposes some sort of export/import balancing accounts. Individuals from the Fed say we may be making much ado about nothing. I say install import restrictions on foreign investment.
Put a halt to all purchasing of US Bonds, Stocks, Land, Buildings and anything else by non domestic citizens. They can ship us all the tv's and bra's they like, but they'll have to trade the dollars they get in exchange for something from someone else, not invest them here.
This will help with the low real returns on assets resulting from excess savings and lack of investment opportunities (at least for domestic investors like me).
If we are going to protect domestic sugar, orange juice, lumber, steel, shrimp, and textile interests, we ought to protect the newly minted masses of 401k/IRA investment managers.
BTW, these legions of mostly hardworking souls may underlie irrational market behaviour going forward, as they allocate resources without the grounding benefit of a sound financial education. |
