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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: philv who wrote (22846)	4/7/2005 7:19:40 PM
From: philv	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81384

Strong dollar, whats a dollar anyway? great start to Richard Russell tonight: Hot news -- On Tuesday President Bush visited the office of the Federal Bureau of Public Debt in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The Prez passed by a cabinet that contained the $1.7 trillion in Treasury securities that make up the so-called Social Security Trust Fund. Later, in a speech at a nearby university, Mr. Bush announced, "There is no trust fund, just I.O.U.'s, that I saw first hand." Yeah, Mr. President, we knew that. The government has spent all of the so-called Social Security trust fund, and in its place they have left a load of I.O.U.'s. But listen, Mr. President, the dollar itself is an I.O.U. In the good old days when the U.S. was solvent, a dollar was an I.O.U. which said the Treasury owed you one dollar's worth of gold. Today the dollar is a piece of paper that says a dollar owes you "nothing." You don't believe it. Then try turning in your dollar to the Treasury and see what you get for it. What you'll get is another dollar with the slogan, "in God we trust." Hey, I already trust God. What I'm worried about is trusting my government. copied from: Message 21208546

To: philv who wrote (22846)	4/7/2005 9:01:57 PM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 81384

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?

To: philv who wrote (22846)	4/8/2005 4:37:25 PM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 81384

Phil > most likely big creditors/players like the Arab oil interests and the Asians are determining the position Indirectly, you are right -- but not in the way you imagined. atimes.com >>The US strategy for using oil to finance its deficit is, of course, brilliant. America's elected officials knew that at some point those independent foreign central banks would start getting edgy about buying more dollars to pay for the United States' war and deficits. The $650 billion trade deficit is breathing down the dollar's neck. So which central banks can the US continue to use as the fall guys to buy the dollar? Why not the Persian Gulf oil states - but where would they get the dollars to buy US Treasuries? Well, with the Chinese piling up dollars and growing like crazy, at some point the oil market had to tighten. It was only a matter of time before the Chinese would start bidding up the price of oil. The Asians, therefore, are hung out to dry when the price of oil rises because they have to spend more of their dollars on oil. As the price of oil goes up, extra money floods into the Gulf kingdoms. With the US secretary of defense putting troops all over the ground in the Middle East, and those nimble aircraft carriers nearby and ready to deliver the "shock and awe of sudden democracy" to the Gulf monarchs, it's a sure bet that America's OPEC buddies will stash their newly found Asian lucky bucks into good old American Treasury notes. With such a simple policy to fund its deficit for another year, it's no wonder the United States can get by without any brain power at the Treasury Department. In effect, the US and its Gulf Arab allies just pulled off the biggest central-bank heist in the history of the world. The price of oil just went up 60% or more*, which really cuts down to size that $3.4 trillion of net foreign holdings of US financial assets. As a loyal American, one would like to cheer one's government's deft move to pick the pockets of our trading and financing partners. Moreover, the US gets the Arabs to fund a large share of our deficit, subsidize our interest rates, and help keep our taxes low for another year.<< * due in no small measure to all the talk about war in Iran.