Phil > You would think that the US would want its currency to slowly and steadily decline in order to cause inflation at home and to some degree help its trade deficit and jobs situation
I have long ago stopped thinking that. One should see the game the US is actually playing rather than trying to prescribe the game it should play. And it should be clear by now, even to a blind man, that the US is not going to do anything to help its trade or fiscal deficits -- other than print more money, that is. As for jobs ---
feer.com
>>Around the world, a quiet revolution is taking place. It wasn't planned, it isn't political. But it is steadily marching, some might say leaping along, and-even if we wanted to-it can't be stopped. The revolution's name is offshoring, and while the concept is not new-manufacturing jobs have been moved to countries such as China and Mexico for years-what is different of late is the huge number of white-collar jobs that are being relocated abroad, and at a tempo and scale never witnessed before.
And it's just starting. Over the next decade, offshoring will knock millions of white-collar Americans and Europeans out of work, blowing a hole in the middle class from Los Angeles to London, from Boston to Berlin, from Toledo to Tokyo, from Austin to Amsterdam.
"I don't think most people appreciate the magnitude of the change in the world's workforce," says Intel's chief executive, Craig Barrett. "Over the next 10 years you are going to see major, major dislocation," he warns. He should know. Intel is hiring thousands of new workers overseas.
Big and small companies alike in industry after industry have done the math and are rushing to move even their most specialized jobs to Asia to cut wages by between half and four-fifths. "We're now outsourcing investment banking to Mumbai," says Stephen Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley. "I don't know why we would ever hire another software programmer in New York again."<<
> why the strong dollar unless the FED is afraid of what the creditors might do, like cancelling further credit or even cash in their US dollar holdings.
I don't think they even give it that much thought. The dollar goes up and down because that's the way prices move in markets. Then the experts all opine and pontificate which is, after all, what they are paid to do.
> It seems to me, the US is screwed with a strong dollar, and equally screwed with a weak dollar.
And so is everyone else -- and that's the game they are playing. No-one can get off the bus. We are all in it together and the US is in the driving seat, at least for now. And the US likes to print money.
> They seem to have now chosen their preference as to how they want to be screwed
Perhaps you should rather say that they have chosen their preference as to how they are going to screw everyone. But anyway, I don't see any preference -- other than printing more money and letting it be borrowed by whoever wants to borrow it.
> But most likely big creditors/players like the Arab oil interests and the Asians are determining the position!
How? Do you think they call up Greenspan and tell him to print a bit more or a bit less? Wouldn't be much point in calling up W.
> There is likely to be much discomfort and complaining forthcoming from over vigorous screwing resulting with a demand from the FED that the position be changed from time to time.
So now we'll see the USD going down on the Euro instead of the Euro going down on the USD. Or is it the other way around? |
