"What, Bush voters worry?" Bush "remarkably calm" despite Dollar's woe

[Bluebear]

WASHINGTON - America's trade deficit is soaring and the once high-flying dollar has sunk to record lows against Europe's common currency. But the Bush administration has reacted with remarkable calm to developments that raise worries about a possible dollar crisis.

Treasury Secretary John Snow, when asked, sticks to his standard comment that the administration's position in favor of a strong dollar has not wavered.

Beyond such utterances has come no single government action. During its four years in power, not once has the administration intervened in currency markets to support the dollar or done anything else to stop the dollar's slide.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041114/ap_on_bi_ge/dollar_troubles

[eleonora]

1. Just *look* confident and they'll gobble it.

Man oh man, how far down have we gone?

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Hey we have heard the BS, "it is good for the economy"

well they WANT to bankrupt the gov'ment, so this suits them fine

[Erika]

3. Bush is a corporate globalist above all else.

Look at what his economic policies have done to our standard of livng.

[Bullshot]

4. It's this same laissez-faire attitude that got Hoover deeper into trouble

and ultimately, this country into the Great Depression.

[cliss]

5. There's a reason for the lack of concern.

They like it. In fact, they love the fact that the dollar is swirling around in the toilet as we speak. Crazy? No, not at all.

Bush and his cronies love the fact that the dollar is losing value. When the dollar goes down, suddenly US goods become cheaper and other countries want to buy our stuff. Exports will go up. Tourists jump on the 1st plane here so they can visit the US. It suddenly became cheaper for them to vacation here.

Conversely, stuff that we import, like goodies at Pier 1 Imports and Cost Plus has suddenly become more expensive. So imports will go down.

Now in light of our catastrophic balance of trade, this is a good thing. We won't import so much stuff. Countries like China and Germany will get pissed, but since when did we ever care about them? So our balance of trade will improve a little, but at what cost?

Having the dollar tumble also has some very negative effects. Many countries peg their currency to our dollar. If we go down, so do they and that might be inaccurate.

Also, think of the damage being done to countries which rely heavily on exporting to the US. They're going to be hurting financially.

Also, consider oil trade which is done in Petrodollars. We buy oil from Russia using $dollars$. On Wednesday, those $dollars$ are not worth as much as they were 2 days ago. Putin becomes pissed and decides he wants to trade in Euros, a much better currency vehicle. So this is causing a lot of instability world-wide.

Bush and his cronies have shown time and time again that they're single-event oriented. All they care about is a very narrow issue (corporate profits for certain industries) and they don't give a rat's ass about anything else.

They're opening Pandora's Box.....

[chicagiana]

6. Except ...

Except the Chinese peg their currency to the dollar. Therefore, their cheap shit will still be cheap shit.

We SHOULD be concerned about our debt. All our foreign debts are going to RISE with our currency. We should also be concerned about foreign investors "pulling out" and causing a financial crisis like those experienced in Asia, Mexico, etc...

This is where things get interesting because typically the World Bank and IMF sails in in these situations to "restructure" the country in a lasseize-fare hell that drives the country into complete poverty. The problem is that the IMF and World Bank are effectively the US Treasury.

So if the US needs to be "restructured", who do we turn to??? What will they demand in return???? Will it force us to privatize the treasury and US Tax Collection functions???

[__Inanna__]

7. First and foremost

he and his are fine. He doesn't care about us or this country.

[tedoll78]

8. Is it me, or is this the return of laissez faire?

Coolidge? Hoover?

Roosevelt?

[deadparrot]

9. Dumbshit is "calm" about everything.

I just have to wonder how many drugs they're pumping through his system to make him look that way.

He says he doesn't see division in this country.
He says international support for this invasion is growing.
He says Iraq is a success.
And now he says this.

Anyone who believes any of the statements above is out of whack with the current situation in the world. This man is unfit to be leader of the free world. And it angers me that more people (re: the media) don't realize this, and don't question it.

[Dark]

10. Moral values is all we real americuns need.

We ain't needin no other kuntries' (espesially them librul commie folks in Eurhop) opinyons on moral values, so what makes yu think we need their opinyons on dollar's value?

{/sarcasm}

Oh, god my brain hurts now.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. The real plan is to

totally hose our economy. Then, under the guise of "needed, tough fiscal policy" severely cut back or eliminate social safety nets and entitlements.

Once they get that, watch the ol' yankee buck go all the way up ... to the moon and beyond.

Th economy recovers, the rich get richer, the "ownership society" owns more, and American peons sleep under bridges.

Hey! Little Guy! Get the fuck outta my yard, ya leech ........