Posted on 03/13/2013 7:50:35 AM PDT by blam
How The US Dollar Staged An Incredible Comeback And Humiliated The Doomsayers
Matthew Boesler and Rob Wile
March 13, 2013
The U.S. dollar is back!
Thanks to a U.S. economy that is outperforming its peers in the developed world, an improving energy trade balance spurred by a domestic energy boom, and a shifting interest rate environment, market practitioners are coming around to the notion that the dollar is poised to enter a new bull market.
However, it wasn't always so.
While concerns about the demise of the dollar are nearly as old as the Republic itself, it was only recently that people were seriously freaked out about the dollar's weakness, and the end of its global dominance.
The dollar's long decline
In 2002, the U.S. dollar index peaked, subsequently losing 40 percent of its value over the next nine years.
Rob Wile/Business Insider
Some of the first dollar-death calls came amid an era that saw two costly wars initiated in the Middle East and big tax cuts by President George W. Bush, both of which helped to send U.S. deficits skyrocketing.
A typical analysis of the situation from the BBC, written at the height of the Iraq war, did not fail to mention these factors.
Meanwhile, the euro was rising. It had been introduced only a few years before, in 1999, and for the first time, there was perhaps to be a real alternative to the dollar as a global reserve currency.
Global central banks, therefore, began diversifying away from the dollar in favor of the euro.
JPMorgan
Even rappers became involved in the unfolding story. The infamous video for Jay-Z's 2007 single, "Blue Magic," includes a depiction of a stack of euros being counted.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
It’s obvious the dollar lost over 40% of its value over the last 9 years, because the price of comsumer commodities (food, fuel, etc.) have doubled in price in the same time frame, while real wages have been stagnant, or declining.
But that fact doesn’t matter, because the DJIA is reaching record breaking highs!
And I’m told I should be happy about this, even though I’m making less money now, than I was 12 years ago, and expected to pull more weight, while carrying the workload of the 2 other employees who were let go due to downsizing.
It's not that the dollar's healthy, as much as the Euro is really sick.
uhh.....cause the Euro was melting down faster than a Hershey Bar on a hot August day and the Saudis, ChiComs, and anyone else with wealth on the planet began soiling their underwear and then flailing about looking for a place to put their money?
Good post!
It’s as comforting as being the healthiest person in the Cancer Ward.
Government propaganda. While the Feds print unbacked funny money, the illusion of prosperity will persist for a little while until people realise that deception is inflating (devaluing) the dollar even more. That scheme has failed every time it has been tried. Think of the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe. The people doing this scam should be held responsible.
Even the Swiss have chosen to allow their frank to free fall.
I'm not sure how I'm supposed to be comforted by the fact that our currency devaluation doesn't appear to be as bad as the Euro or Yen. After all, the Brazilian Real is in great shape compared to the Zimbabwean Dollar.
The last guy above the waterline on the Titanic: “Sure everyone else is all wet - but I’m still doing fine...”
As long as there is slack in the economy than sure.
If Japan figures out how to do this en masse, Peak Oil is over - because there is more methane hydrate on the bottom of the ocean than oil underground that we believe exists.
God help us if environmentalists jump in and ban it because of the worms that eat it.
No don’t loose sight of what oil and gas are doing to the economy. They are reversing the four decades long slide in US oil production. They promise in a few short years to make the USA oil independent.
There are few oil independent countries with weak currencies.
The next big oil field is going to be in West Texas in the Permian Basin. There are a couple fields out there. I think the one that will make the news as bigger than bakken and Eagle Ford will be the Cline Shale formation. It will quickly add another million barrels @ day to US oil production when it starts to come onstream in 2014. You’ll start hearing much more about it later this year.
Here’s what it is.
The fed is printing fiat money. So they make a couple trillion dollars of fiat money. That’s bad.
However fracking has just added another 50-100 trillion dollars worth of oil backing the US dollar from nothing. That’s good.
The value of any currency like the dollar—just like stocks— is based on its perceived future and not its past.
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