Sinking Currency, Sinking Country

World Net Daily ^ | 11/02/07 | Pat Buchanan

[Thorin]

The euro, worth 83 cents in the early George W. Bush years, is at $1.45.

The British pound is back up over $2, the highest level since the Carter era. The Canadian dollar, which used to be worth 65 cents, is worth more than the U.S. dollar for the first time in half a century.

Oil is over $90 a barrel. Gold, down to $260 an ounce not so long ago, has hit $800.

Have gold, silver, oil, the euro, the pound and the Canadian dollar all suddenly soared in value in just a few years?

Nope. The dollar has plummeted in value, more so in Bush's term than during any comparable period of U.S. history. Indeed, Bush is presiding over a worldwide abandonment of the American dollar.

Is it all Bush's fault? Nope.

The dollar is plunging because America has been living beyond her means, borrowing $2 billion a day from foreign nations to maintain her standard of living and to sustain the American Imperium.

[MNJohnnie]

Try reading posts 46, 98 and 119 and learning something about the Economy for a change.

[am452]

American companies were relocating to Japan in the 1980s and giving half of their offshore holdings to the Japanese government, like they do for the communist chinese government today? LOL I didn't know that?!

Good point.

[dennisw]

Really? Where does one find out the export profile of a Third World nation?

It exports raw materials and ag. commodities such as sugar, coffee, bananas (as in banana republic) and imports manufactured goods. Surely you know that. You can't possibly be such an ignoramus

[texastoo]

Common knowledge sir. If you want to sell a lot of a product to a country, you are going to have to give them a piece of the pie.

If it is common knowledge, there sure are alot of dumb people on this thread. They don't have a clue as to what China is doing. They just spout off thinking someone will believe them.

[1rudeboy]

You are still getting it wrong. Only a portion of the EU-15 member countries are running a trade surplus.

[dennisw]

EU-13?

[Toddsterpatriot]

It exports raw materials and ag. commodities such as sugar, coffee, bananas

Then I guess the exports in post #88 prove that we don't have the export profile of a Third World nation. Thanks for clearing that up.

[am452]

Common knowledge sir. If you want to sell a lot of a product to a country, you are going to have to give them a piece of the pie.

When is China going to start building their manufacturing plants in the US??

[Alberta's Child]

I don’t know who your last post was directed to. I have never made any such statements about China’s economy, and in fact on a number of occasions here on FreeRepublic I have made the exact same statement you’ve made here.

[1rudeboy]

Don't you think it would be rather foolish for the U.S. not to export ag-products? We have the most efficient (despite its own faults) ag sector on the planet.

[american colleen]

I think this is what's stumping me - take the semiconductor export number for instance. I assume that's the finished product but I believe that most of the assembly and test stages are done offshore. What this says to me is that the company is based here in the US but they either offshore or subcontract most of the work that would be blue collar here to lower paying countries (I think Asia in this case).

I could definitely be wrong, but ten years out why would Asia need the US based company if they do most of the grunt work anyway?

It's like IT -- tons of companies outsource/offshore the technical component to the detriment of the US IT worker... resulting in a big loss of IT degrees here in the US for the future. Pretty soon it's a lost skill here and we rely on other countries to do that work since we can't do it ourselves.

I can see both sides of the 'flat world' equation but I am definitely unsettled about the future of the US worker in many skilled fields.

Glad my daughter is going for a nursing degree, son is a bit too young to decide but I hope he goes for a career in something that cannot be sent to another country.

[1rudeboy]

EU-BS.

[dennisw]

Even the EU25 runs a small trade deficit of 16 billion Euros. Compare that to our trade deficit in the 800 billion dollar range

If you run an insane trade deficit your currency gets spanked. Such as today the USD is down and gold mine stocks up so far

[Thorin]

>>>>Oh, we have things to export but nothing like we did 10-20-30 years ago. Entire industries have been decimated. The factories are gone and abandoned to rust and rats

>>>>You can lower the US dollar by 50% and we'll have trouble evening up the trade deficit.

You are exactly right.

[ChiefJayStrongbow]

... we shouldn’t tax the imports but we should inspect them 100% and have the importers pay for 100% of the inspection costs (not out of OUR tax dollars).

The falling dollar would only make us more competitive in the world if we were energy independent. Because 60% of our trade deficit is related to energy imports, and because energy imports become more expensive as the dollar decreases in value, the dollar decrease just means that the % of the trade deficit that is due to energy will increase. WE ARE SENDING MORE $$$ TO THE PEOPLE THAT HATE US!!

And OPEC and China will continue to sponsor the enviro-whackos so that we will never become energy independent.

[1rudeboy]

I did some research on the semiconductor sector a couple years ago. At the time, our largest plants were Intel’s in Flagstaff and Samsung’s in Austin. Both were undergoing multi-billion dollar expansions.

[dennisw]

Don't you think it would be rather foolish for the U.S. not to export ag-products? We have the most efficient (despite its own faults) ag sector on the planet.

We have a great and modern ag sector. These are great exports same as Australia which also exports wheat

I will definitely admit this is much better than the coffee sugar bananas exports of a 3rd world nation

But still, the mark of an advanced nation is you make your big money foreign exchange by exporting manufactured goods. Like Japan, Korea, Germany

[RSmithOpt]

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 02 Nov 2007 at 02:49:13 PM GMT is:

$ 9,081,537,254,554.48

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.44 billion per day since September 29, 2006

Once again it is the total debt we must focus on, not just what is accrued per quarter.

[roses of sharon]

Bump to that!

[1rudeboy]

You do understand that if I cherry-picked my data, say, by including Canada’s and Mexico’s figures with those of the United States (such as you are using EU figures), even without using the term “small,” our domestic tinfoil manufacturs would not be able to keep up with the surge in demand.