The End of Dollar Hegemony

Ron Paul's Speeches and Statements ^ | February 15, 2006 | Ron Paul R-TX

[Irontank]

The creation of Iranian oil bourse was a story that received almost zero attention from the press...but its impact on America will be greater than most of us know...

[Paul Ross]

Pinging.

[MNJohnnie]

Because it is completely fraudulent hysteric stupid nonsense tin foil hat story. WHO are the current dollar holders going to SELL their dollars too? See if we were on the Gold standard, the US Govt would have to give the dollar holders gold in exchange for the dollars. Since the dollar floats they have to FIND SOMEONE TO BUY their dollars if they want to switch. It is a grotesquely stupid NON story. Who are they going to SELL their dollar holding too? SOMEONE has to want to BUY them!

[hedgetrimmer]

bump

[Paul Ross]

I think Ron Paul is solid on most financial issues, but frankly, he is missing the mark on the Iraq war. (As is Milton Friedman and Paul C. Roberts, fellow conservative economists).

The Saddam tapes, revealed on ABC News by Brian Ross, SHOULD be causing these folks to revise their mistaken attacks against our very necessary intervention.

[Philistone]

More gold-standard nonsense.

[pissant]

The dollar is going to be just fine. The Euro is skittish and will NOT replace the dollar as the worlds currency.

[F16Fighter]

Don't believe the hype!

[Paul Ross]

WHO are the current dollar holders going to SELL their dollars too?

The Iranians are linking up with China. The Chinese are sitting on an $800 billion currency stash.

They refuse to buy almost any American manufactures at all. They have a 5-to-1 trade imbalance, and the imports from us are skewed to raw materials (timber, raw ores, and foodstuffs), and one-time technology grafts into their production system...which turn around and increase their exports back to us., and they run a huge $102 billion surplus against the World.

To the extent they bother to buy our T-Bills, this will merely exacerbate the long-term balance of payments problem...because they still own the capital, and can demand it back...plus we...the taxpayers...will be milked for the interest and the return of the capital. The T-Bills are just being sold to continue the federal ponzi scheme import consumption frenzy.

They are not being recycled into financing restoration of U.S. industrial production, or anything like that. They just prop up the unproductive growth of the government.

As Ronald Reagan always said..."Government IS the problem..."

[headsonpikes]

Ironically, dollar superiority depends on our strong military, and our strong military depends on the dollar. As long as foreign recipients take our dollars for real goods and are willing to finance our extravagant consumption and militarism, the status quo will continue regardless of how huge our foreign debt and current account deficit become.

In this one sentence, he negates the import of the rest of his thesis.

Dollar hegemony is the price willingly paid at this time for the military security the U.S. provides. At some point in time the system will default; but it is obvious by the very chronology that Paul outlines that the Central Banks have, in fact, been successful at adapting the money system to meet new circumstances since WWII and Bretton Woods.

Still, the dollar price action of gold reveals the public perception of the systemic inflation permeating our economy. I'm a gold bull, personally, but I think that the money system will survive a revaluation of gold to the $1000 level over the next few years.

[Porterville]

yawn... we ain't like the rest of the world. We ain't a bunch of lazy ignorant slobs.

[madtier1]

thru mirrors, revionist history or just plain making it up the author seems to be holding the USA and our 'interests' as being the cause of all that is wrong in the world...

...a new slang just occured to me: 'COATIW' - 'cause of all that is wrong' - which the lefties will say is the USA (and repubs of course!)

[LSUfan]

Has Ron Paul ever introduced a single bill in Congress that ever passed?

[A. Pole]

It is an unbelievable benefit to us to import valuable goods and export depreciating dollars. The exporting countries have become addicted to our purchases for their economic growth.

"Let London manufacture those fine fabrics of hers to her heart's content; let Holland her chambrays; Florence her cloth; the Indies their beaver and vicuna; Milan her brocade, Italy and Flanders their linens...so long as our capital can enjoy them; the only thing it proves is that all nations train their journeymen for Madrid, and that Madrid is the queen of Parliaments, for all the world serves her and she serves nobody."
(Prominent Spanish official - Alfonso Nunez de Castro in 1675)

[bert]

Well said.

$$$$ are best spent buying American goods and services.

The current flap over the port contract is proof of that statemenmt. The best way to repatriate $$$ is to purchase American Assets.

[fallujah-nuker]

The T-Bills are just being sold to continue the federal ponzi scheme import consumption frenzy. They are not being recycled into financing restoration of U.S. industrial production, or anything like that. They just prop up the unproductive growth of the government.

You've made an excellent point, the Grandfather Economic Report includes this graph:

In the report he writes:

Since successful military capacity is related to the potential of the private sector to support a large economic war-time surge, if needed, it is instructive to first compare the relative size of the private sector today to that before, during and after WW II and see how today's surge potential compares.

This chart shows a 70-year history of the private sector (blue line) share of the economy, compared to the relative size of the federal plus state & local government sector spending share (red line) of the U.S. economy. (the chart is from the Government Spending Report). Today's spending ratio is 43% of national income.

Note the huge down-draft of the private sector (blue line) share of the economy during the 1940s, which resulted from the equivalent upward jump of the government spending share of the economy (red line).

That red jump was the World War II war-time economic surge to support men and factories transferred from private sector to military needs - - equivalent to a total economic shift of more than 30% of the entire economy.

Now - - what happened at the end of the 1940s, right after the war? Did our leaders do the right thing? The apparent answer is YES. The chart shows that by 1947 the red government line dropped back near it's pre-war level, as said economic resource demands were transferred from government's economic share back to the private sector (blue) from whence they were 'borrowed' for war-time purposes.

By returning the private sector line to near its pre-war level the private sector, once again, had recovered its pre-war capacity to economically support future such surge requirements should they be needed at another time. The size of the post-war government cut-back was a very proper result - - protecting our future.

Now to the problem - - What happened after 1947 to preserve future war-time surge capacity? Answer: it deteriorated, remarkably so.

After 1947 this chart shows the government spending started ratcheting upward, from 22% share of the economy to today's 43% level nearly twice as high, as shown at the right edge of the chart. And, as a result, the economy remaining to the private sector dropped from a 78% share down to about 57%. This means the war-time surge potential has been reduced about 21 points since WW II.

[winner3000]

In all of these threads related nervousness over China holding our T-bills, there is never any mention that China feels it HAS to buy our T-Bills in order to keep the dollar HIGH. We keep trying to depreciate the dollar in order to finance our debt with cheaper dollars, and China keeps buying T-Bills to keep the dollar strong. If the dollar were to go down, the price advantage Chinese goods have in the US would quickly erode. The end result is that we buy their cheap goods and they keep buying our paper.

[RaceBannon]

The creation of Iranian oil bourse was a story that received almost zero attention from the press...but its impact on America will be greater than most of us know... Oh, I know someone who posts here who is on top of it...

[RaceBannon]

Why do they have to sell them?

All they have to do is use them and then replenish their banks with Euros...


Just buy off whatever goods they choose in dollars they presently have, and never take in any more, just use Euros.

Simple as pie...

[Former Proud Canadian]

bump