7 Countries Considering Abandoning the US Dollar (and what it means)

I for one, look forward to the new depression. It's the only way we can redirect our self destructive culture of consumerism.

They are already playing Christmas carrols in Walgreens.

 

economy is controllable unless teh head of state is an arrogant moranic jerk.

 

if you're going to call someone a moron, make sure you get it spelled right

 

You mean like what Carter did?

 

More like what Bush did and didn't do.

 

So if the President is smart, we would have no recessions? That's pretty "moranic"

 

that's the standard BBS spelling to avoid being replaced with ********. ..

 

Less chance of having one.

 

pretty much the same thing with your own house or home economy. most can be controlled by the head of the family. but here we are talking on a bigger scale.

 

You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
The complete and utter ignorance and anger that is leading
them to blame Bush for EVERYTHING is just astounding.

I think Bush has done a number of things wrong, and many things
right, but this is just insane.

The irony of the weaker dollar is that is actually is benefitting our multinational companies that hire many of us. The US is a service based
economy and the US consumer is tapped out. Having a weaker dollar actually helps us do business abroad especially in comparison to European companies. In the long run its not a good thing, but it may be allowing us to create inroads into emerging markets that may pay large dividends in the future.

The funny thing is that when everyone is jumping on technology stocks (late 1990's), real estate (2004-2006) and now emerging markets and the Euro/pound, they are all being reactionary within the financial markets. Because the euro has outpaced the dollar for the last few years does that mean its going to continue? On a relative value basis the UK pound and the Euro are quite overvalued relative to the US dollar. The US large equity markets are also quite undervalued relative to international/emerging markets as well in my opinion. Its about free cash flow and instrinsic valuation, not news stories. Listen to the numbers, not the noise.

 

Good post but what intrinsic value does paper with green ink have?

I agree completely it is all about intrinsic value and fiat dollars have zero.

I think the intrinsic value of paper and ink is about $0.02 per bill.
And the value of computer posted currency is $0.00 per entry.

 

simplification- dollars are like IOU's

let's say you owed 9 trillion in debt and you were going to keep borrowing and
to pay back your debt and to keep on spending money you start writing IOU's out to banks and they then make loans based upon how many IOU's they book.

Now when nations feel good about your IOU's they will buy all you have or take them in exchange for anything you want to purchase. But if they start thinking about how many IOU's you are writing as if there is a never ending supply of IOU's it makes them a little nervous.

Nobody wants to be holding the most IOU's when the empire starts to crumble.

So nations are just a little edgy right now.

Once they feel good about our IOU's again hopefully they will see the light and help prop those babies up and we can keep printing IOU's with gusto.

This is a wonderful scheme of an economy we've been running the past 80 yrs. Let's hope it keeps afloat just a few more years so you and I don't have to be there when nature takes its course.

 

Spending billions of dollars towards war on oil is not affecting our economy?

Ok, so if it's not George, it must be Jeff then.

 

It is funny to me that the absolute best and brightest minds that money can buy, Bank Of America, Citicorp, Goldman Sachs etc. have driven themselves to the brink in the search for short term profits.

I see this goofy corprate hierachy system everywhere I look. The job that pays more justifies it's existence by squeezing more out of all the lessor paying jobs underneath it. They don't really produce anything, they are just managers and district managers and division managers and vice presidents. They are really just drivers and overseers. You can pressure people into producing profits but the pressure loosens their ability to act reasonably and morally.

Our (capitalist) system is built on the assumption of limitless growth that fails to grasp that environments have a limited carrying capacity. It's boom till you bust.

I said it was funny but really it's sorta scary. I can only hope that their is actually some grandfatherly hand behind the curtain that is preparing to administer a little tough love to these stock option go-getters. A cabal of the ultra rich and elder statesmen that listen to Warren Buffet and can actually understand Alan Greenspan.

I don't want the last scene of the movie to be Charleston Heston seeing the ruins of the Statue of Liberty and crying to the sky, "Malthus was right!"

 

The economy is a summary of the psychiatric state of the nation. Bush is, as he said: PROOF THAT A "C" STUDENT CAN BE PRESIDENT. But he is also proof of what a "C" student president can do to a country. He asked himself: when did I love "Poppy and Mommy" most? Answer, when they violated all rules of logic, fairness and good sense and spoiled me rooten, giving me everything I wanted. So, since that's how they made me love them, I'm going to make all the slimes that contributed to my campaign love me by giving them everything that makes no sense, is not fair and even breaks the law. So here we are with America in the hands of "hedge fund" robber barons and short-sighted "C" students like George. They talk people into all sorts of stupid investments, taking their "commissions" off the top, because people just assume no one could be so stupid so they must know something that physicists and cosmologists don't know about the law of conservation of energy. So now the $ is shrinking in value because little theives are making $billions off the avarice of Viagra-kept-up geriatric America. No one is asking what will happen to the dollar if $3 trillions after we give up Iraq we still have not stolen all its oil. Afterall, Bush thinks that no matter how much blood and treasure he wastes trying to steal Iraq's oil, once people can fill-er-up their SUVs with cheap gas, they will remember him as a great president. Sooooo, we now have a "C" president and a "C" dollar. The concequences are obvious when you ask yourself: what do we in America produce so we don't have to buy it from abroad? China has more $ than we do; so if it decides to replace George Washington with Mao o the bill there's nothing was can do. We even have to import scientists and engineers because Americans concluded that since a dummy can be president, a dummy can get rich. So why bother studying math and science...you can always quell your doubts and fears with Bibble-babble!

 

This diatribe is just beyond idiotic.

Dude, you have ZERO understanding on how the economy and the dollar work. You can stop trying now.

 

I agree this can't be totally pinned on Bush although his policies haven't helped.

That's the problem though in the long run this isn't good for us. While there are some short term gains there also some short term problems. Yes a cheaper dollar means we can market easier to other countries but at the same time that also means that the cheap imports we have been buying become more expensive contributing to inflation. The other problem is if nobody wants dollars to fund our economy then since we are so dependent on credit we could see a real slowdown in our economy.

You might be right about the numbers but the market isn't always as rational as Adam Smith believed. A short term dip in the value of the dollar isn't a problem and even something as you note with some benefits but what we are talking about here is a mass sell off of the dollar. That would create problems that would be very difficult to recover from.

 

ouch, very ouch.

after all, there really is nothing we can do, it's all there. you voted for a C president and that makes you a deepblue student.

 

How come I get the feeling we are going to start hearing about the gold standard.