US Dollar

How to Create 5.8 Million Jobs Pronto - Stop Currency Manipulation

Want to know how to create up to 5.8 million jobs in three years?  End currency manipulation.  So says a new study released from the Economic Policy Institute.  If currency manipulation was stopped, the U.S. trade deficit would shrink by up to $500 billion in three years, annual GDP would increase up to $720 billion, the federal budget deficit would be reduced by $100 billion each year and 40% of the new jobs created would be in manufacturing.

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

Originally published on OpEdNews

The United States Government and its presstitute media have wasted time and energy creating hysteria over a non-existent debt ceiling crisis. After reading the news in the Ministry of Propaganda and witnessing the stupidity of the US government, the rest of the world is struck dumbfounded by the immaturity of the world's only superpower.
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What kind of superpower is it, the world wonders, that is willing to go to the eleventh hour to convince the world, which holds its banking reserves in US Treasury debt, that the US government will default on the debt?

Every country in the world now worries about the judgment and sanity of the country with the largest nuclear arsenal in the world.

This is the achievement of the Republicans, who took an ordinary commonplace increase in the debt-ceiling limit, an event that has occurred routinely many times over the course of my life, and turned it into a crisis threatening the world financial system.

To be clear, there was never any risk whatsoever of US default, as President Obama has power established by President George W. Bush's Presidential Directive 51 to declare default a National Emergency and to set aside the debt-ceiling limit and Congress' power of the purse, and to continue to issue the debt necessary to fund the US government and its wars.

That the American press ever took this highly-hyped "crisis" seriously merely demonstrates their prostitute status.

Higher gas prices: What we pay for bailing out Wall Street

The financial media has almost completely ignored the massive rebound in oil prices this year.

(CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices have vaulted above $78 a barrel this week as investors continue to fret about a weak dollar and the pace of the economic recovery.

When the news media has mentioned oil they've tried to paint it as a good thing - expected demand from a booming economy. Of course the general economy is not booming, or doing much of anything for that matter.

No love for the dollar

A lot can happen in two weeks. Normally the foreign exchange market for developed nations move like glaciers. But in these days of global warming even glaciers are breaking speed limits.
Less than two weeks ago the World Bank President had some interesting things to say regarding the dollar.

"The United States would be mistaken to take for granted the dollar's place as the world's predominant reserve currency," Mr. Zoellick told the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University.
In his strongest comments yet in the debate over the dollar's reserve-currency status, Mr. Zoellick said that, "looking forward, there will increasingly be other options to the dollar."

For 65 years the American dollar has been the world's reserve currency. Practically as good as gold. So Mr. Zoellick's words might be considered controversial.

The numbers just don't add up

The saying goes "a picture tells a thousand words". If that's true then these charts I'm about to show you tell a huge, scary novel.

Let's start with this one.


Reversing its role as the world’s fastest-growing buyer of United States Treasuries and other foreign bonds, the Chinese government actually sold bonds heavily in January and February before resuming purchases in March, according to data released during the weekend by China’s central bank.
Mr. Wen voiced concern on March 13 about China’s dependence on the United States: “We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.”

The Decline and Fall of the Dollar Empire

The Japanese made an unusual suggestion the other day that was largely ignored in the American press.

Japanese economists, increasingly concerned that the United States might seek to pay its enormous and growing debt obligations in a weakened US dollar, are looking to the possibility of US Treasuries being issued in yen.
...
As the yen strengthens, the effective value of debt held in dollars will decline, a fate that yen-denominated Treasuries would escape.

This idea isn't new. President Carter issued bonds denominated in German Marks and Swiss Francs when the dollar's value was in doubt during the high inflation of the late 70's. Now there are new questions being raised about the dollar, but this time the concern isn't inflation - its default.

The dollar and the Prisoner's dilemma

In 1971 America had a currency crisis. Other nations had stopped accepting our paper dollars as payment for our debts and were demanding gold instead. The problem was that America didn't have enough gold to cover the massive debts being run up because of the war in Vietnam.

What did we do? We simply defaulted on our debt by repudiating the promise to back our currency with gold. The situation was epitomized by Nixon's Treasury Secretary John Connally, when he responded to the complaints of 29 trading and banking allies:
“It may be our currency, but it's your problem.”

37 years of massive budget and trade deficits later it is still our currency and it is still someone else's problem. However, every game must someday end. Eventually the costs of playing the game become so great that the benefits of not playing become attractive.
The world is now approaching a point where it is being forced to make a choice.

Manufacturing Monday: Guess whose making the Prius now? Oh and VWs too!

Call it a positive effect on the falling US Dollar. Along with an increase activity by domestic manufacturers, foreign companies are now expanding their operations here in the US. Now, yes I understand that ultimately the money goes back overseas, but they are hiring folks who needed jobs. To me, that last part is what counts.

It's official, Toyota will make the Prius in the US!