Dumping of US dollar could trigger 'economic September 11'

The Australian ^ | August 29, 2005

[Travis McGee]

For your perusal and comment.

[DB]

Our "power" doesn't rest in our currency. Nor does our wealth.

Our power rests in our ability to create things, freely and defend ourselves. Something much of the world has forgotten how to do.

[Terpfen]

As president of the Economic Strategy Institute, a Washington think tank, he is in regular contact with the most influential US business leaders, several of whom -- Warren Buffet and George Soros included -- have taken steps to hedge their currency positions against the possibility of a cataclysmic plunge in the greenback.

This article is filled with ignorance, but this is the most telling sentence. Soros sold the dollar short because he wanted to cause an economic crisis to get Bush out of office--he admitted as much. IIRC, he's lost the equivalent of $500 million due to shorting the dollar.

I can't believe I delayed sleep just to read this crap.

[Free Vulcan]

He's exactly right. However, if we go down, everyone goes down with us. Pretty stupid to try and crash our economy.

[overtaxed_canadian]

By conducting free and open trade with a totalitarian country that pegs its currency to the USD, the United States is slowly but steadily eroding its power and ability to create things.

[RWR8189]

The death of the dollar has been greatly exaggerated.

Are nations really going to dump the dollar to put their reserves into euros betting on the perpetual recession that is the eurozone to provide stability?

[meadsjn]

"This is the belief that markets are self-correcting and best left alone. Soros calls this a dangerous siren song. Far from being self-correcting, he emphasizes, markets tend to excess. They over-shoot. Anyone with any experience of markets knows this.

"When markets are going down, all the weaknesses get concentrated, and you need intervention at the right time to stop things from getting out of control. If the dollar started to melt down, the results could be really nasty. A 1930s-style global depression is not out of the question."

It matters little that it is Soros making the statement -- it is an obvious fact to anyone who reads. Markets are already more manipulated by the big players and governments, rather than by supply and demand.

Many of the self-anointed elites fared well enough through the Great Depression, and many of them will through this coming one. It was, and is, their bleeding off all the real people's operating capital through increasing taxes and decreasing real incomes that causes depressions.

What is worse this time is that they have dismantled so much of our manufacturing capability and sent it to our future enemies. Our elected politicians have joined the opposition in an economic war against American citizens.

[meadsjn]

And furthermore, business owners get tax credits for hiring foreigners here on work visas, but none for hiring Americans. That's just a damn crime.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I'm trying to remember a decade where I didn't hear this prediction. It shows up every 3 to five years. Plus the one where nations who tie their currency to the dollar are going to drop it for the Euro or some other less stable currency. I'd be more concerned if I didn't hear it.

[Pro-Bush]

Reads like one of those "buy gold" commercials.

[Caipirabob]

Oh yeah, run for the Euro, baby!

The Chinese yuan might be a threat though. That is if you trust China. It's undervalued significantly and there is pressure to float it on the market.

[ChristianDefender]

I dont want think about this as another Bush's Fault! ...

[Jaysun]

This is idiocy.

The Dollar is headed for a gain against the Euro. Twin peaks.

[OldFriend]

Propaganda works as well as terrorism.

[rlmorel]

WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!!! WE'RE SCREWED!!!!!!!!

[Jimmy Valentine]

It would please me very much to see Soros have to earn his living with a hand organ and a monkey on some busy streetcorner.

[newsgatherer]

And with the price of oil at four times what it was just a few years back, the muslim hordes have a ton of greenbacks to dump.

Invade Mexico take their oil and use our HEAVILY ARMED Military to secure our borders! All of our borders, north, south, east and west.

[Always Right]

Soros is one of the greatest currency speculators of all time. He was the guy who broke the British pound in the early 1990s by betting $US10 billion it would fall. He made a quick billion when it did. In 2002

LOL, and he has lost about that same amount this year betting against the dollar....

[KeyWest]

What is worse this time is that they have dismantled so much of our manufacturing capability and sent it to our future enemies.

---

A statement that has been said so often that it is believed. The manufacturing base in the US has been fairly constant over the years. It goes down during a recession (when all the statements are made about the manufacturing base leaving the US) and goes up in good times. But so does everything. It is just that manufacturing is singled out because of the higher pay for most of those jobs.

Plus, States that once had a large base are profiled (like Michigan) but others that have gone from zero (like Tennessee) are ignored.

Electronics are one area that the US, on purpose, let the Japanese after WWII have as their base. It helped the economy of Japan move from the feudal age into the 20th century. Japan is hurting more than us in this area because of Korea (Samsung).

The US will always have the edge and will not lose its manufacturing base as long as it stays mostly in the free market of capitalism. Other countries are more state managed and get into trouble because they bet on outmoded technologies.