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COMMENTS:
Voted : Weaker Dollar.
Oh, please, trust me on this. When the Canadian Loonie went up to par with the U.S. dollar, they literally had parties. Now, they're moaning.
Everything takes time. The U.S. dollar was dramatically over-valued for decades. Our economic position was severely weakened.
The United States remains the number 1 manufacturer in the world, but we have fallen to the number 2 exporter behind Germany (China had surpassed Germany, but the WTO re-classified much of their exports, since much of what China builds is actually not a domestically owned product).
The weaker dollar has very, very little to do with prices and I keep telling you that. The dollar is strong against most currencies and is really only weaker against the other two major world currencies: the Yen and the Euro.
The Dollar MUST come to a common range. A weaker dollar makes IMPORTS more expensive...that has NOTHING to do with the prices of most major things, such has housing, food, etc. ONLY imports are affected and ONLY Imports from countries in which the dollar has lessened in value to THEIR currency.
Does anyone on here have any clue what being a World Reserve Currency means?
And as a reminder...nations DO NOT set currency value....Currency traders do. Huge, huge difference.
Now I pose the question to you: Why would a strong dollar benefit you unless you are travelling abroad or buying foreign made goods? And, keep in mind, the ONLY foreign made goods affected, are those in which the domestic currency has lost value in trade against the currency of the nation exporting to YOUR country.
I think you believe that a weaker dollar has something to do with housing, etc. Not at all. The ONLY way it does, is to make it CHEAPER if you're importing the materials to make that house.
On your ballot description above, where you talk about the strong dollar propoents, you are totally wrong when you write about depreciating value of homes. That has NOTHING to do with it.
LCD, not to be rude, but currency markets are so complicated that trust me, novices are not even remotely on the mark when it comes to understanding the ramifications.
So now answer this: Cry babies whine about us outsourcing manufacturing. So obviously, they equate manufacturing with economic growth and stability. If your currency is foreced up, how on earth can you competitively export? You cannot. So what do you do? You send your manufacturing overseas. Sorry...but Americans CANNOT have it both ways anymore.
Currency value is a point of national pride for chest thumpers.
If you think I'm wrong, feel free to disagree. Bear in mind, I get my information from my Grandfather, whose family founded and runs a very large and successful II company. So who do you think would know more? :)
The ONLY way it does, is to make it CHEAPER if you're importing the materials to make that house.
Sorry, that should read, is to make it more EXPENSIVE
" The weaker dollar has very, very little to do with prices and I keep telling you that"
so are you saying $110 oil prices has nothing to do with our weak dollar?
"nations DO NOT set currency value....Currency traders do"
again, simple supply and demand. Currency Traders DO NOT set the prices, market forces do.
market forces are dictated by supply and demand. when supply is HIGH (like when they are diluting the market with cheap $$) the price of that commodity ($$) goes down.
and I do equate billions of dollars of LIQUIDITY every odd tuesday as diluting the market. - Geez, Reagan must be dancing in hell, the trickle down econ. of his era was nothing compared to what is being done right now.
look back in history (only 50 years) and what economist and their follies have done. most economists don't have a grip on what commoners are going through. Sure they can sit in their ivory towers and dictate that they can eat cake when they don't have bread, but that type of thinking doesn't last too long when the masses don't get their next meal.
we will see.
by LCD on Thu Mar 13, 08 1:25pm
[+]
strong dollar proponent would argue that if the dollars that you earn is worth more in the world market, you will be able to buy cheaper oil/gas, cheaper overseas vacation/retirements (where you are treated like a king for few dollars) Cheaper product prices (raw materials and imports would be cheaper) and savings (in your bank account, your home, etc) would keep its value, and not depreciate 50% each decade.
That is wholly inaccurate. The United States does not set oil prices, nor does OPEC. Oil prices and Natural Gas prices are set by the futurists who run the exchanges in NY and London. Most Americans are unaware that international prices for commodities are set in NYC and London. Ironic. Oil is priced in a basket of currencies. It can be priced in Yen, the Euro or the Dollar or the Pound. But, it is generally paid for in U.S. dollars since so many nations hold dollars in reserve. The value of the U.S. dollar has nothing to do with that, except on a balance sheet. The price is what it is. As for raw materials, the United States, like Canada, is rich beyond comprehension in raw materials. Nickle, Iron, Lumber, coal...all of those raw materials are not imported on any major scale, since the USA and Canada are net exporters of those same raw materials.
Coal, right now, is the hottest natural resource. What nation has the most coal reserves in the world? The United States. A weaker dollar means we can export vast amount more than we could if the dollar was too strong.
Please...do not get your financial news from CNN CNBC or any mainstream news source. They are ignorant.
LCD, you are wrong. I'm sorry, but you are:
"nations DO NOT set currency value....Currency traders do"
again, simple supply and demand. Currency Traders DO NOT set the prices, market forces do.
The demand is high because of emerging markets, particularly China. China nees more and more oil. OPEC does not increase production, because they make more money. The value of the dollar has nothing to do with it.
If tomorrow, OPEC increased output by 30%, the price of oil would drop. What does that have to do with the value of the dollar? NOTHING.
You keep confusing prices with currency value. Please, explain that to me, when most of the world currencies are low valued. Using your logic, we would see rampant inflation in those nations and that is not the case at all.
Market demands set the prices on some things, but NOT on others.
Prices increase for certain reasons: fuel costs go up, wages go up, supply dwindles. So what, please explain, does any of those factors have to do with the value of the dollar?
Oil can be priced in Euros. So? Why on earth then, are fuel prices on the rise in Europe and all over the world? It has NOTHING to do with the value of the dollar! The dollar is valued higher than all of the OPEC nations. So then why is fuel still high? Because it is a high demand commodity and supply is not being increased.
If tomorrow, all of OPEC switched to the Euro, nothing would change. Nothing. Demand would still be high and production would still be low.
If you track the value of the Dollar versus oil prices, as ONE example, you will see they are NOT connected. Answer me this: Why do they pay so much more per gallong of gas in Europe than they do in the USA? Using your logic, since the Euro is valued higher than the dollar, shouldn't they be paying LESS?
I'll tell you what: this is such a complex and massive topic that if you feel you know more about it than the experts, let me put you in touch with people who make their very living from these issues. How's that sound? :)
And so YOU know...once and for all, ALL currencies are maniupulated. If you don't know that China has been artifically manipulating it's currency for years, then you're deluding yourself.
So again, I ask you to answer: China has a weak curreny. Correct? So then how is it they are (according to people like you) doing so well? Using your train of reasoning, wouldn't it mean that China is stagnant and could not possibly grow, given that they have such an anemically weak currency? I guess so. :)
And one last thing: the bottom of the Sterling fell out many years ago. The British government, agains the advice of economists, tried to prop it up. Why? National pride. A currency speculator decided he wanted to derail the Pound. He did. He destroyed it. Immediately after, manufacturing in Britain went through the roof! To buy something "British" was the in-thing and everyone could, since their currency had lost almost 75% of it's value. They were booming!! Now, their currency is once again over-valued and guess what? They're suffering "dumping." Dumping is against international trade laws. Basically, it is innudating a market with such cheap goods as to make domestic manufacturing an effort in futility. Research it, then get back to me. China dumps all the time. Did you stop to reason that our LETTING the dollar de-valuate was a way to stagnate Chinese imports WITHOUT having to use sanctions? Bet you didn't consider that.
So when you run an international company with a few thousand employees and billions and billions under asset, you tell me how you know better. :)
well, don't you think this would be simple to prove?
check the oil price per bbl in USD both today and 10 years ago.
take that percentage. now,
check the oil price per bbl in Euro both today and 10 years ago.
compare that percentage. to the US percentage.
okay so now you can see what average americans are seeing.
that 50% you see is the result of the falling dollar.
by LCD on Thu Mar 13, 08 1:47pm
[+]
"So then how is it they are (according to people like you) doing so well?"
I think you misquoted me there.
China is doing better. Lot better compared to 20 years ago.
they are still starving in the countryside. that's why they are allowed to run sweatshops in cities paying pennies and making the city look so prosperous.
Having toured the rust belt, the policies of devaluating the dollar over the last 30 years have caused nothing but misery to majority of the population.
Let's switch the seats here. Okay, let's assume that weaker dollar is good. Paint me a picture where it would be good for the majority of americans in the next 50 years.
one condition. You have to keep them alive and feeding - in order for that thought process to be considered a success.
by LCD on Thu Mar 13, 08 1:54pm
[+]
Okay, you have it all figured out. So, best of luck to you. :)
I can tell you factually, that for the immediate future, the dollar is intentionally being allowed to weaken. If you are opposed to that, obviously, you know best.
As for Oil, I guess I have to once again repeat myself: it is PRICED in U.S. dollars!!!!!!! If it were priced in Euros, it would be the same price, just in Euros! How can you not grasp that? the price is what is is. And you logic is so flawed. If the Euro is MORE valuable than the U.S. dollar, would't that mean then that Oil and gas would be cheaper in Europ? How come you can't answer that question? I mean that's using YOUR logic. :)
And 10 years ago, demand was NOT as high as it is today. Blame emerging markets like China, Brazil and India. They're development drove up demand...and thus....prices. You're a smart man, figure it out. :)
Voted : Stronger Dollar.
I always wondered when no matter which way the dollar went, it would be declared as a good thing, but it's better to have a stronger dollar where your money would "go" further if you went abroad or bought foreign products a weak dollar may mean other Countries investing in this one and we may one day be the "cheap labor" market, like China is today...
Having toured the rust belt, the policies of devaluating the dollar over the last 30 years have caused nothing but misery to majority of the population.
by LCD on Thu Mar 13, 08 1:54pm
Proof you are totally and blisfully unaware. For your information, for the last 30 or more years, the dollar has been OBSCENELY over-valued! I mean come on! We TAKE ourselves OFF the gold standard and the value of the dollar goes up?? Use common sense man!
I give up. What people say about the American citizen is true: we truly are the most ignorant whiney cry babies in the world. So you go ahead and travel abroad Soothsayer and when we are nothing but a nation of service industry workers, you tell me where your job went. Unbelievable. Ingorance.
and we may one day be the "cheap labor" market, like China is today...
by thesoothsayer on Thu Mar 13, 08 1:55pm
Not to be rude, but that statement is what makes the United States so stupid. It's people that is. Sorry, I do apologize, but you really, really need a serious economics lesson.
"I give up. What people say about the American citizen is true: we truly are the most ignorant whiney cry babies in the world. .... Unbelievable. Ingorance."
hey.....
that's not cool.
by LCD on Thu Mar 13, 08 2:09pm
[+]
" I can tell you factually, that for the immediate future, the dollar is intentionally being allowed to weaken"
so just enlighten us, who is behind this grand design? I would love to put a name to the policy in 10 years. 
by LCD on Thu Mar 13, 08 2:12pm
[+]
"Because oil prices and the dollar have moved in opposite directions, the increase of oil expressed in euros instead of dollars has been less pronounced than the oil price increase in dollars. This may not be coincidental. Oil producers sell their products in dollars. These dollars are used to purchase other goods in international markets. As the dollar lost its value starting in 2002, oil producers could afford to buy less in international markets with their dollars. To compensate for this loss of buying power, they may have raised the dollar price for oil. As a result, while oil prices in dollars rose by 162 percent from their low point in January 2002, they climbed by less than half that rate measured in euros, 77 percent. At that rate, oil prices would have only risen to $34 per barrel in October 2004, instead of the actual $52, without changes in the dollar’s value."
by LCD on Thu Mar 13, 08 4:14pm
[+]
As a Canadian I can tell you that the rapid strengthening of our currency has created problems - since our dollar has reached parity more or less within the last six months -
exporters lose their advantages because their products cost more
and we expect tourism to suffer as well. The manufacturing sector has been hit hard.
We haven't seen very much of a drop in prices domestically either. Books prices are still printed between 15 and 25% higher in Canadian dollars than in American ones, even when the currencies are worth the same.
On the other hand, if you shop around you can get good deals on travel and buying directly from other countries. Unemployment has also decreased steadily in the last six months.
I like pie.
^me too
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