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Strategies & Market Trends : The coming US dollar crisis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RockyBalboa who wrote (8031)	6/28/2008 9:41:01 AM
From: RockyBalboa	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71441

Not so; ECB seen hiking rates by a "small amount": Steinbrueck warns negative impact if ECB hikes rates BERLIN, June 28 (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck warned on Saturday about the negative impact if the European Central Bank raises interest rates, saying he feared an economic slowdown already taking place could be accelerated. "The ECB has to consider that they could possibly send the wrong signal with an interest rate increase because it could have a pro-cyclical impact at a point when the economy is slowing down," he told Der Spiegel news magazine. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said last week that the ECB was in a state of heightened alertness about inflation and saw an "acute" risk of a wage-price spiral. He repeated that it was possible the ECB would raise rates by a small amount on July 3. (Writing by Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Jason Neely

To: RockyBalboa who wrote (8031)	6/28/2008 9:42:31 AM
From: RockyBalboa	Respond to of 71441

"Stop Trichet" web petition says no to rate hike PARIS (Reuters) - An online petition urging the European Central Bank not to raise interest rates in July has collected almost 1,500 signatures. The petition at www.stoptrichet.com, conceived by French economist Marc Touati, argues that given the current economic situation, rate hikes will only aggravate inflation in the euro zone and harm fragile economic growth. "If the ECB's (refinancing) rate increases the euro will rise again, the dollar will fall, therefore oil prices will rise," the petition said. "In other words, in wanting to fight against inflation by increasing interest rates the ECB would actually increase the latter," it said. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet shocked markets this month when he said the central bank might raise rates from 4.0 percent in July to stop current record high inflation -- fuelled by high oil prices -- from feeding into wage and price demands. Launched on Friday, the petition had collected 1,473 virtual signatures by 11:00 a.m. EDT on Monday. Touati told Reuters most signatories were French, but there was also support from Italy, Spain and English-speaking countries. "It's really taking off," he said.