Posted on 11/28/2006 6:10:53 AM PST by Kimberly GG
In an interview with CNBC, a vice president for a prominent London investment firm yesterday urged a move away from the dollar to the "amero," a coming North American currency, he said, that "will have a big impact on everybody's life, in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico."
Steve Previs, a vice president at Jefferies International Ltd., explained the Amero "is the proposed new currency for the North American Community which is being developed right now between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico."
The aim, he said, according to a transcript provided by CNBC to WND, is to make a "borderless community, much like the European Union, with the U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso being replaced by the amero."
Previs told the television audience many Canadians are "upset" about the amero. Most Americans outside of Texas largely are unaware of the amero or the plans to integrate North America, Previs observed, claiming many are just "putting their head in the sand" over the plans.
CNBC asked Previs whether he thought NAFTA was "working and doing enough."
He replied: "Until it created a lot of illegal immigrants coming across the border. I don't know. You get the pros and cons on NAFTA. For some people it is a good thing, and for other people it has been a disaster."
The speculation on the future of a new North American currency came amid a major U.S. dollar sell-off worldwide that began last week.
Yesterday, the dollar also reached new multi-month low against the euro, breaking through the $1.30 per euro technical high that had held since April 2005.
At the same time, the Chinese central bank set the yuan at 7.0402 per dollar, the highest level since Beijing established a new currency exchange system in 2005 that severed China's previous policy of tying the value of the yuan to the U.S. dollar.
Many analysts worldwide attributed the dramatic fall in the value of the U.S. dollar at least partially to China's announcement last week that it would seek to diversify its foreign exchange currency holdings away from the U.S. dollar. China recently has crossed the threshold of holding $1 trillion in U.S. dollar foreign-exchange reserves, surpassing Japan as the largest holder in the world.
Barry Ritholtz, chief market strategist for Ritholtz Research & Analytics in New York City, in a phone interview with WND, characterized today's downward move of the dollar as "wackage," a new word he coined to convey that the dollar is being "whacked" in this current market movement.
Ritholtz told WND that yesterday's downward move "was a major market correction that points to the risk of subsequent downside to the dollar."
Asked whether he would characterize the dollar's downside move as signaling a possible collapse, Mr Ritholtz told WND, "Not yet."
Ritholtz pointed out market professionals had long looked at a dollar collapse as a "low probability event," but the recent fall suggests "the probabilities have increased of a major dollar correction, or even of a collapse."
U.S. trade imbalances with China have hit a record $228 billion this year, largely reflecting a surging flow of containers from China with retail goods headed for the U.S. mass market.
Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez is in Bejing leading a trade delegation of more than two dozen U.S. business executives.
"The future should be focused on exporting to China," Guiterrez told reporters in Bejing, noting that this year, U.S. exports to China are up 34 percent on a year-to-year basis, surpassing last year's gain of 20 percent.
One way to improve the U.S. trade imbalance may be to ease up on restrictions of exporting high-tech products and allowing technology transfers to China, a move likely to be politically charged in the U.S.
The decline in value of the dollar will also make U.S. exports more attractive and Chinese exports to the U.S. more expensive.
In February 2007, a virtually unprecedented top-level U.S. economic mission is scheduled to travel to China. Included in the mission are Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Jr., Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Previs declined to be interviewed for this article, telling WND in an e-mail he did not want to be quoted directly in any article that may express a political point of view.
That is by far the most idiotic analogy I've ever heard on Free Republic, and that's up against some stiff competition.
You cannot sneak up a monetary change like this in the dead of night. Billions had to be spent preparing people in Europe for it - changing everything from cash registers, ATM machines, to sophisticated systems of accounting. It is not something that can be done in the dead of night or without warning. But you don't think to this level of detail; you seize hold of some paranoid nutjob's meanderings and take it to heart. There are plenty of genuine things to be afraid of in this world - Islamic terrorism, the far left, Hillary Clinton - this is not one of them. By continuing in this paranoid fantasy you're breathing life and wasting energy on a mirage when there are real problems to be solved.
Think about it, and do THINK before you reply.
Ivan
The Mods are CFR, pass it on.
I know MadIvan. MadIvan is no communist, but he is literate.
Show me facts. I have seen none from you. This article is based on what we can see is mostly fact. And that is "Amero". I have seen no other monetary devise mentioned. There is a lot of dots that need some attention to.
That is the beginning, the middle and the end of it.
Now either you're going to accept it or you're going to continue to be mindless.
Ivan
Though there are many other kinds of commodity convertibility, these are, as noted earlier (footnote 3) complicated and hence hard to explain to the public at large. That is one reason why all recent proposals for reforming Canada's monetary order that envisage replacing inflation targets with a system underpinned by convertibility rest, not on a commodity of any sort, but on either a brand new North American currency or the U.S. dollar. Given the Americans' total lack of interest in giving up a shred of control over their own currency, let alone abandoning it for something else, the only proposals among these that are practically possible are those involving either the outright unilateral adoption by Canada of the U.S. dollar as its currency, or the creation of a new Canadian currency linked to the U.S. dollar by way of a currency board.
Read it. Learn. Let the facts penetrate the battleship armour thickness of your skull. I cannot force you not to be stupid, but I damn well will try.
Ivan
Now that I've noticed, you are lucky the thread didn't get pulled for being a duplicate. Maybe the Mods are afraid doing so would set off the kook-alarm.
This is what your #37 said:
To: hedgetrimmer
I actually did some searching about the Amero. Here is what the Bank of Canada has to say:
LINK
Though there are many other kinds of commodity convertibility, these are, as noted earlier (footnote 3) complicated and hence hard to explain to the public at large. That is one reason why all recent proposals for reforming Canada's monetary order that envisage replacing inflation targets with a system underpinned by convertibility rest, not on a commodity of any sort, but on either a brand new North American currency or the U.S. dollar. Given the Americans' total lack of interest in giving up a shred of control over their own currency, let alone abandoning it for something else, the only proposals among these that are practically possible are those involving either the outright unilateral adoption by Canada of the U.S. dollar as its currency, or the creation of a new Canadian currency linked to the U.S. dollar by way of a currency board.
Kooks like you can "talk to the hand".
____________________________________________________
What is the context, date, reader, and link of this document? Please post.
This piece that you posted in #37 is ambiguous at best.
Interesting!
Ivan
My comment on the other thread whether this trader holds a short position on the dollar. [chuckle]
I've repeated it, and marked the salient portion in red. I can't make it any clearer than that - it says America is not interested. Or do they have to use words of six letters or less for you to understand them?
Ivan
Given the Americans' total lack of interest in giving up a shred of control over their own currency, let alone abandoning it for something else
Now, is that clear? Do you understand? Learning yet? Or do you have to have a nurse come wipe the drool from the corners of your mouth every 10 minutes?
Ivan
Obviously you don't think this is the case. So, what evidence can you point to over the past five years that this isn't the goal of Washington, Mexico City, and Ottawa?
"We live in the status quo" really isn't a valid argument given the radical Hispanicization of Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California that has already taken place - not to mention the lack of any action to stem the flow of illegal immigrants to the United States.
Don't mind me. This was just an excercise to determine the nature of the mysterious Mr. Previs. Apparently he is a real person, and does work for Jefferies International, Ltd. .
Now whether the 'Amero' is something going or not--I'm sure its wishful thinking for some folks, but Bush and Co. just can't pop up one day and say: Well, we're all using a new currency now!
But just to have some conspiracy fun---what would happen if other parties decided to divest themselves of dollar holdings, and as a consequence, devalue the dollar (the devaluation is already happening, but a divestment over a short term could push a crisis)? Now, how would an argument be made to control such devaluation, especially since the relatively interest rate in the US gives the Feds not so much freedom to maneuver?
relatively == relatively low
Damn. I thought it was junk mail.
</sarcasm...sort of>
Back to your corners. Both of you.
You didn't read the footnote 3 did you? These are all theories and 'schemes' that were analyzed and where not a part of the Gold Standard or metallic standard. "Angela Redish has reminded me, some work goes so far as to speculate about the potential stability of systems with no such anchor at all". I would speculate that "Amero" could be a viable "anchor". Here is the footnote:
3. The free-banking literature contains many ingenious schemes for convertibility anchors that go far beyond simple metallic standards, such as those based on gold and silver. As Angela Redish has reminded me, some work goes so far as to speculate about the potential stability of systems with no such anchor at all. Selgin and White (1994) survey this material, which there is no space to discuss here, with admirable clarity. Suffice it to say that I share their skepticism about the viability of systems that lack any convertibility anchor, and that to it I add a further personal judgment: namely, that, to be politically durable, monetary policy arrangements need to be kept simple, and that some of the more complex schemes that have appeared in the free-banking tradition, though apparently theoretically viable, would probably fail this test in practice.
Reading is good for the soul.
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