Maybe if we spent less of our money taking care of the rest of the world....
Most of the economic weakness of America could be cured by the abandonment of the Stupid Tax [aka the income tax] in favor of a retail sales tax.
Interest rates are flat, our economy is stronger now than
ever, the budget deficiet has shrunk to $200B. Gas prices have not caused rampant inflation as predicted by those oh-so-smart
Keynsians.
Of course the U.S.A had record vacation travel this past 4th of July.
You gold bug contrarians better take your measly dollars now.
Not many Reagan supply siders on this post.
Comparing the relative strengths of two semi-socialist economies is about as interesting as comparing two gays
in a slapping contest.
However, massive illegal immigration, and growing underclass not fluent in English, nor assimilating to our culture nevertheless going on the public dole in the millions, coupled with a noticeable decline in customer service (including the now "para Espanol, inprime el numero dos"), are all signs of concern. I think in many respect America's best days are behind us. No amount of patriotic vitriol can move basic, hard, stubborn facts.
If we don't watch out, India and China are also about to eat our lunch--although I doubt I will be around when that finally comes to fruition.
My suggestion to all of you is: get ready for a huge increase in export sales.
Those having surplus dollars will try to take advantage of the price of American goods, which just became cheaper. Think of it as a “bargain sale” in which someone gave you extra currency just before you go to the store.
Duh...
Is America's decline based on the willingness to spend a familys future for debt over cheap Chinese toys?
Double Duhh...
...agreed. The fear of the USD adjusting internationally isn’t based on facts. We enrich other nations by importing from them, so they want more. Thus, their currencies go up in relation to ours. As currencies equalize, more manufacturing in the USA will happen. It should be a more widely accepted economic cause-and-effect occurrence.
We should be more afraid of an internationally high dollar. We need more American savings and less debt in order to own and control more of our own economy. Special interests should be stopped from trying to pressure the Fed. and mess with the dollar so much.
After reviewing the posts on this thread, it’s appears quite obvious that allot of the posters never got past the title.
How is an overly expensive Europe that is impossible to do business in better than a high volume economy like the USA?
It me means more manufacturing and service jobs here.
I know this hal lindsay on his site talks about this for about thirty minutes. talks about the dollar and high oil prices I learned alot from this tonight.
Is this from scrapple? A story about the weak dollar where you are not told to buy gold? :)
The presstitutes can never get over equating economic power to the currency.
The cheap $$$ is keeping our factories humming as they strugggle to keep up and get container loads of product to the port. The growth produces revenue and the deficit is declining into insignificance.
The Euro’s will struggle as their products become increasingly expensive on the world markets. They can’t compete when their prices are ridiculously greater than the Americans. The big trading companies are coming here to buy goods to export to their African customers because if they don’t they will loose the business to the Amercan salesmen.
A lot of Americans think Europe is some sort of economic basket case. The reality is a number of Euro states are now wealthier then America per capita in real terms.
They have more socialism, but some have well ran government programs. I’d rather see my healthcare dollars go to a doctor or nurse who was working for the government.. then to a mega-millionaire trial lawyer.
Another example is education. America and Europe have socialized education. Yet I believe every Euro nation scores above America in math and sciences. Some well beyond. I’ve read the long report on the oecd rankings in math and science. America came 29th. That matters in today’s ultra competitive world having a highly skilled workforce into the future.
- The reasons to this are actually very simple:
It is more or less unavoidable for the currency of the world’s largest economy, The EU, to become a ‘global currency’, especially as The EU is a very open economy which both imports and exports a lot of goods and services.
Before the Euro, the only true ‘global currency’ was the dollar. Today, a lot of global trade is done in Euros, therefore THE DEMAND for dollars is not as big as it was before the introduction of the Euro. This is actually a matter of basic supply and demand economics.
Furthermore, the economic growth of continental Europe is presently better than it has been for over 15 years, 3.3% on an annual basis. This is very low compared to India and China (in fact even to some European countries, like Finland which recently enjoyed a GDP growth level of nearly 7%), but it is decent. Simultaneously as the Euro has established itself as a true ‘global currency’ and financial experts around the world have become more and more convinced the Euro project will NOT collapse in quarrels and internal strife among the Euro countries, the US has entered a period of more modest economic development than it has enjoyed for a long stretch of years recently.
But is the strength of the Euro a problem for the US (and/or for The EU) in the long run?
Hardly. For too long, The US has exported dollars and imported products of other countries. Indeed, the US have also managed to sell a lot of high quality products to the rest of the world, but The US is less dependent and less successful in terms of exports compared to several Asian and European countries.
Today, the dynamic US economy is facing a major opportunity; the conquest of the lucrative, growing export markets of Asia and Europe. Many American companies are already highly active in this area, but due to the comparatively cheap dollar, the ground is prepared for even greater success.
My advice to the Americans, who are admired around the globe for their spirit of competitiveness among people who know something about economy:
- Go for it!