Dollar's Decline Is Reverberating

Engineer

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Click me!

During a routine sale of U.S. Treasury bonds in early September, one of the essential pillars holding up the economy suddenly disappeared.


Foreigners have been regularly buying nearly half of all debt issued by the U.S. government. On Sept. 9, for the first time that anyone could remember, they stayed home.


"Thoughts of panic flickered out there," said Sadakichi Robbins, head of global fixed-income trading at Bank Julius Baer.


The foreigners returned in force at the next Treasury auction, and Sept. 9 was quickly dismissed as an aberration.



But the episode demonstrated how much the U.S. economy is dependent on other countries to bankroll its free-spending ways. That fragility is becoming even more precarious because of recent declines in the U.S. dollar to multiyear lows, some economists say.


Amid worries about bulging U.S. budget and trade deficits, the greenback dropped last week to a record low against the 5-year-old euro, a 12-year low against the Canadian dollar and a nine-year low against an index of major currencies. Many analysts don't see anything that will stop the decline.

A cheaper dollar reduces the value of American securities, making them less attractive to foreign investors. That could eventually precipitate what Robbins called "the doomsday scenario" ? Japan and China not only refusing to buy U.S. bonds, but selling some of their $1.3 trillion in reserves.


The only way Uncle Sam could then find new customers for its IOUs would be by raising interest rates. And although higher rates are good for savers, they would be disastrous for a country weaned on cheap credit.


"Sometime soon, the falling dollar is going to show up in rising inflation, rising interest rates and a falling standard of living," said Harry Chernoff, an economist with Pathfinder Capital Advisors. "The housing and mortgage markets, which benefited the most from declining interest rates over the past few years, are likely to feel the most pain."


Not everyone agrees that suffering is imminent. The National Assn. of Manufacturers calls the dollar doomsayers "all but hysterical." Manufacturers and produce growers like a cheap dollar because it makes their products more affordable in foreign markets.


Even some foreigners like the low dollar. China has pegged its currency to the dollar. A weak greenback means a weak yuan, making Chinese goods cheaper in foreign markets and fueling the nation's economic boom.


To most American consumers, a falling dollar is more an annoyance than cause for alarm. It raises the price of a cup of coffee to outlandish levels during a Paris vacation, and may cause second thoughts about buying a more expensive Volkswagen.


But a number of economists and academics say there are real reasons for concern. If the dollar falls too far too quickly, they say, those all-important foreign investors will abandon the U.S. in favor of stabler places.


Indeed, there are signs that such an exodus might have already started.


In August, the most recent period for which there's data, foreign private investors sold $2 billion more in U.S. stocks than they bought, the Treasury said. Meanwhile, they dumped $4 billion more in government bonds than they purchased.


"A run for the exits could happen any day, that's for sure," said C. Fred Bergsten, author of "Dollar Overvaluation and the World Economy" and director of the Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank.


Such a prospect creates a tricky balancing act for policy makers. As long as the dollar devalues in a slow and orderly way, and doesn't trigger panic selling of American securities, Bush administration officials appear to be comfortable with the fall. As they see it, the benefits of boosting the economy through higher exports outweigh the drawbacks.





The administration approach could work out fine in the short run, economists say. But eventually the slide must stop. Few countries can maintain strong economies with a debased currency.

Indeed, if a weak currency was the prescription for long-run economic health, countries like Argentina and Mexico ? which have suffered massive currency devaluations in the last decade ? would be financial titans.

Ultimately, these economists say, the solution is for the U.S. government to reduce its massive budget deficit. That would curb the need for Uncle Sam to issue so many Treasury notes. And the dollar would rise on its own, because the deficit is the main reason it continues to fall.

Having China decouple the yuan from the dollar also could help, economists say. It's a step the Bush administration has sought from Beijing, with little progress.

Under the best scenario, economist Bergsten sees China acceding to American pressure and easing or dropping the yuan-dollar peg by the end of the year.

Allowing the yuan to float upward would raise the price of Chinese goods in this country and reduce the U.S. trade deficit with the new Asian powerhouse, estimated to be $150 billion this year.

But if the Chinese resist, the euro will rise even further. It could move up from last week's $1.30 to $2, Bergsten said. Three years ago, it was worth 84 cents.

That ascent would upset the Europeans, whose exports would suffer and whose economies are already struggling. Central bankers usually speak in measured tones, but European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was moved last week to call the euro's rise "brutal" and "not welcome."

Neither the dollar nor the deficits became a hot-button issue during the presidential campaign, for obvious reasons. No politician has ever won an election by telling people their standard of living is going to go down, particularly at a moment when it's so easy to get a loan.

"The insidious thing about deficits is that they go on as long as the markets allow them to go on," said Maurice Obstfeld, an economics professor at UC Berkeley and author of many works on global capital markets.

"So people get lulled into the certainty they'll always be able to borrow at low rates, and that this is right and normal and an endorsement of their behavior," he said. "But it has to stop at some point."

A slump in the dollar also has been providing immediate benefits for some businesses, particularly multinationals but also smaller firms.

"There's all this scare stuff about the falling dollar, but it's allowing us to compete in the marketplace more effectively," said Stephanie Harkness, chief executive of Pacific Plastics & Engineering in Soquel, Calif.

Eighteen months ago, Pacific Plastics built a plant in Bangalore, India. It now employs 48 people there and 86 in Soquel.

"Our customers can save 50% when we produce molds for them in India rather than here," Harkness said. "My ideal scenario is not to have a plant in California at all."

If Pacific Plastics' bottom line is improving, the government's is steadily getting worse. The gap between what it spent and what it took in during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 was $413 billion, a record.

This week, Congress will have to raise the government's $7.4-trillion debt ceiling so it can borrow more money. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (news - web sites), by 2008 nearly 10% of the budget will be devoted to interest payments.

President Bush (news - web sites) has pledged to halve the deficit by 2008. Many economists say that will be difficult, if not impossible, without raising taxes, something Bush has pledged not to do.

In his postelection news conference, the president said the economy could grow its way out of trouble.

"As the revenue streams increase, coupled with fiscal discipline, you'll see the deficit shrinking," he said.

The stock market soared on Bush's remarks, but the currency markets rendered a different verdict. The dollar continued to fall.

It's not only the government that is profligate. The U.S. current account deficit ? the broadest measure of international trade, including exports, imports, services and investments ? rose in the second quarter to $166 billion, up 13% from the first quarter.

Much of the second-quarter shortfall was in goods: for every $20 in products American manufacturers sent overseas, U.S. consumers bought $36 in foreign electronics, cars and other items.

The current account deficit has risen from 1% of gross domestic product in 1990 to 5.4%.

That doesn't seem like much, and in the short term it isn't, said James Gipson, chairman of the $7-billion equity mutual fund Clipper Fund, in a letter to shareholders. But just like credit card debt, it compounds over the long term.

"A slowly and likely growing share of our output of goods and services will go to provide comfortable retirements for the residents of Tokyo, not Topeka," Gipson wrote.

One trouble with owners in Tokyo is that they may decide they want to own something in India or China instead.

That's why the Sept. 9 auction prompted concern.

Usually indirect bidders, which include foreign governments, are heavy buyers at Treasury auctions. This time, their purchases were less than 3%. Traders speculated that Japan was finally calling it quits.

What happened was never explained, but neither was it repeated.

"It turned out to be a fluke," said Kim Rupert, managing director for global fixed-income analysis at Action Economics, a consulting firm. "But at first blush, it was 'Oh my gosh.' "

Deficits....deficits.....deficits.....

We're all going to pay. It won't wait for our children or grandchildren....it'll get us....before we even knew what hit us.

I have decided, through my own personal life habits and goals, that this is my issue of choice (deficits and their associated problems to the US) over the short term. Maybe both sides and the middle can agree and really (I mean really) work on this MAJOR problem.
 

alchemize

Lifer
Mar 24, 2000
11,486
0
0
Originally posted by: Engineer
Click me!

During a routine sale of U.S. Treasury bonds in early September, one of the essential pillars holding up the economy suddenly disappeared.


Foreigners have been regularly buying nearly half of all debt issued by the U.S. government. On Sept. 9, for the first time that anyone could remember, they stayed home.


"Thoughts of panic flickered out there," said Sadakichi Robbins, head of global fixed-income trading at Bank Julius Baer.


The foreigners returned in force at the next Treasury auction, and Sept. 9 was quickly dismissed as an aberration.



But the episode demonstrated how much the U.S. economy is dependent on other countries to bankroll its free-spending ways. That fragility is becoming even more precarious because of recent declines in the U.S. dollar to multiyear lows, some economists say.


Amid worries about bulging U.S. budget and trade deficits, the greenback dropped last week to a record low against the 5-year-old euro, a 12-year low against the Canadian dollar and a nine-year low against an index of major currencies. Many analysts don't see anything that will stop the decline.

A cheaper dollar reduces the value of American securities, making them less attractive to foreign investors. That could eventually precipitate what Robbins called "the doomsday scenario" ? Japan and China not only refusing to buy U.S. bonds, but selling some of their $1.3 trillion in reserves.


The only way Uncle Sam could then find new customers for its IOUs would be by raising interest rates. And although higher rates are good for savers, they would be disastrous for a country weaned on cheap credit.


"Sometime soon, the falling dollar is going to show up in rising inflation, rising interest rates and a falling standard of living," said Harry Chernoff, an economist with Pathfinder Capital Advisors. "The housing and mortgage markets, which benefited the most from declining interest rates over the past few years, are likely to feel the most pain."


Not everyone agrees that suffering is imminent. The National Assn. of Manufacturers calls the dollar doomsayers "all but hysterical." Manufacturers and produce growers like a cheap dollar because it makes their products more affordable in foreign markets.


Even some foreigners like the low dollar. China has pegged its currency to the dollar. A weak greenback means a weak yuan, making Chinese goods cheaper in foreign markets and fueling the nation's economic boom.


To most American consumers, a falling dollar is more an annoyance than cause for alarm. It raises the price of a cup of coffee to outlandish levels during a Paris vacation, and may cause second thoughts about buying a more expensive Volkswagen.


But a number of economists and academics say there are real reasons for concern. If the dollar falls too far too quickly, they say, those all-important foreign investors will abandon the U.S. in favor of stabler places.


Indeed, there are signs that such an exodus might have already started.


In August, the most recent period for which there's data, foreign private investors sold $2 billion more in U.S. stocks than they bought, the Treasury said. Meanwhile, they dumped $4 billion more in government bonds than they purchased.


"A run for the exits could happen any day, that's for sure," said C. Fred Bergsten, author of "Dollar Overvaluation and the World Economy" and director of the Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank.


Such a prospect creates a tricky balancing act for policy makers. As long as the dollar devalues in a slow and orderly way, and doesn't trigger panic selling of American securities, Bush administration officials appear to be comfortable with the fall. As they see it, the benefits of boosting the economy through higher exports outweigh the drawbacks.





The administration approach could work out fine in the short run, economists say. But eventually the slide must stop. Few countries can maintain strong economies with a debased currency.

Indeed, if a weak currency was the prescription for long-run economic health, countries like Argentina and Mexico ? which have suffered massive currency devaluations in the last decade ? would be financial titans.

Ultimately, these economists say, the solution is for the U.S. government to reduce its massive budget deficit. That would curb the need for Uncle Sam to issue so many Treasury notes. And the dollar would rise on its own, because the deficit is the main reason it continues to fall.

Having China decouple the yuan from the dollar also could help, economists say. It's a step the Bush administration has sought from Beijing, with little progress.

Under the best scenario, economist Bergsten sees China acceding to American pressure and easing or dropping the yuan-dollar peg by the end of the year.

Allowing the yuan to float upward would raise the price of Chinese goods in this country and reduce the U.S. trade deficit with the new Asian powerhouse, estimated to be $150 billion this year.

But if the Chinese resist, the euro will rise even further. It could move up from last week's $1.30 to $2, Bergsten said. Three years ago, it was worth 84 cents.

That ascent would upset the Europeans, whose exports would suffer and whose economies are already struggling. Central bankers usually speak in measured tones, but European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was moved last week to call the euro's rise "brutal" and "not welcome."

Neither the dollar nor the deficits became a hot-button issue during the presidential campaign, for obvious reasons. No politician has ever won an election by telling people their standard of living is going to go down, particularly at a moment when it's so easy to get a loan.

"The insidious thing about deficits is that they go on as long as the markets allow them to go on," said Maurice Obstfeld, an economics professor at UC Berkeley and author of many works on global capital markets.

"So people get lulled into the certainty they'll always be able to borrow at low rates, and that this is right and normal and an endorsement of their behavior," he said. "But it has to stop at some point."

A slump in the dollar also has been providing immediate benefits for some businesses, particularly multinationals but also smaller firms.

"There's all this scare stuff about the falling dollar, but it's allowing us to compete in the marketplace more effectively," said Stephanie Harkness, chief executive of Pacific Plastics & Engineering in Soquel, Calif.

Eighteen months ago, Pacific Plastics built a plant in Bangalore, India. It now employs 48 people there and 86 in Soquel.

"Our customers can save 50% when we produce molds for them in India rather than here," Harkness said. "My ideal scenario is not to have a plant in California at all."

If Pacific Plastics' bottom line is improving, the government's is steadily getting worse. The gap between what it spent and what it took in during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 was $413 billion, a record.

This week, Congress will have to raise the government's $7.4-trillion debt ceiling so it can borrow more money. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (news - web sites), by 2008 nearly 10% of the budget will be devoted to interest payments.

President Bush (news - web sites) has pledged to halve the deficit by 2008. Many economists say that will be difficult, if not impossible, without raising taxes, something Bush has pledged not to do.

In his postelection news conference, the president said the economy could grow its way out of trouble.

"As the revenue streams increase, coupled with fiscal discipline, you'll see the deficit shrinking," he said.

The stock market soared on Bush's remarks, but the currency markets rendered a different verdict. The dollar continued to fall.

It's not only the government that is profligate. The U.S. current account deficit ? the broadest measure of international trade, including exports, imports, services and investments ? rose in the second quarter to $166 billion, up 13% from the first quarter.

Much of the second-quarter shortfall was in goods: for every $20 in products American manufacturers sent overseas, U.S. consumers bought $36 in foreign electronics, cars and other items.

The current account deficit has risen from 1% of gross domestic product in 1990 to 5.4%.

That doesn't seem like much, and in the short term it isn't, said James Gipson, chairman of the $7-billion equity mutual fund Clipper Fund, in a letter to shareholders. But just like credit card debt, it compounds over the long term.

"A slowly and likely growing share of our output of goods and services will go to provide comfortable retirements for the residents of Tokyo, not Topeka," Gipson wrote.

One trouble with owners in Tokyo is that they may decide they want to own something in India or China instead.

That's why the Sept. 9 auction prompted concern.

Usually indirect bidders, which include foreign governments, are heavy buyers at Treasury auctions. This time, their purchases were less than 3%. Traders speculated that Japan was finally calling it quits.

What happened was never explained, but neither was it repeated.

"It turned out to be a fluke," said Kim Rupert, managing director for global fixed-income analysis at Action Economics, a consulting firm. "But at first blush, it was 'Oh my gosh.' "

Deficits....deficits.....deficits.....

We're all going to pay. It won't wait for our children or grandchildren....it'll get us....before we even knew what hit us.

I have decided, through my own personal life habits and goals, that this is my issue of choice (deficits and their associated problems to the US) over the short term. Maybe both sides and the middle can agree and really (I mean really) work on this MAJOR problem.
Agreed. I wholeheartedly support your position.

 
Sep 29, 2004
18,656
67
91
YTup, GW is flushing america down the toilet. only when the economy takes a crap will all those Bush fans realize the mistake htey have made.

I really hope they never get to see that day though.
 

Engineer

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
39,230
701
126
Originally posted by: IHateMyJob2004
YTup, GW is flushing america down the toilet. only when the economy takes a crap will all those Bush fans realize the mistake htey have made.

I really hope they never get to see that day though.

Both sides are flushing America down the toilet. The republicans have taken a page from the democrats on this one....spend....spend....spend. Might also explain why the republicans are taking controls....

Yesteryear....Republicans were conservative and wanted smaller governements and tax cuts (more money int he pockets)
Democrats were liberal and raised taxes to give the serivces and social welfare that many wanted or thought they needed...

Today: Republicans give tax cuts and social welfare. They now do both sides of the fence....giving everybody what they want on both sides. Democrats want tax hikes...but even more spending.

In the end, we all lose.

 

dahunan

Lifer
Jan 10, 2002
18,191
3
0
Republicans do not give Social Welfare... They give CORPORATE Welfare. <<That takes YOUR Money and gives it big rich fatcats who want to enslave your children.
 

Engineer

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
39,230
701
126
Originally posted by: dahunan
Republicans do not give Social Welfare... They give CORPORATE Welfare. <<That takes YOUR Money and gives it big rich fatcats who want to enslave your children.

Again, both sides do that now. As was said before the election...it's now the Spend and Spend parties.

 

dahunan

Lifer
Jan 10, 2002
18,191
3
0
Originally posted by: Engineer
Originally posted by: dahunan
Republicans do not give Social Welfare... They give CORPORATE Welfare. <<That takes YOUR Money and gives it big rich fatcats who want to enslave your children.

Again, both sides do that now. As was said before the election...it's now the Spend and Spend parties.


Yes, this is why I see politicians as scum who sell their integrity and soul to suck off of the public tit and then will lie to keep their power.

There may be more to the devaluation of the Dollar than we are realizing.. NewWorldOrder was Daddy Bush.. ex Director of the CIA ;)
 

conjur

No Lifer
Jun 7, 2001
58,686
3
0
Central banks 'shunning dollar'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4200811.stm
Many of the world's central banks are starting to look to the euro to fill their currency reserves instead of the dollar, a survey suggests.

The poll carried out by Central Banking Publications found 39 nations of the 65 surveyed raising their euro holdings, with 29 cutting back on the US dollar.

The dollar's sharp fall in the face of huge deficits could be one cause of the switch, the report says.

The survey was sponsored by the UK's Royal Bank of Scotland.

Losing ground

The last three months of 2004 saw the dollar slip by 7% against the euro, taking it to repeated all-time lows of more than $1.30.

The US is running a budget deficit of close to $500bn a year, funded largely by China and Japan buying large amounts of US government bonds.

Some economists have suggested that the two could ease their purchases, making it more difficult for the US to support its borrowing.

Similarly, the current account - the difference between the amount of money going out of the US and coming in - is deeply in the red, the result largely of large trade deficits.

Both factors have helped to push the dollar lower. However, the falling dollar does mean that central bank holdings of dollar reserves are losing value.

"Generally, central banks' approach to reserve management is becoming much more active as they search for higher returns," said the authors of the report.

"The euro seems to have come of age."

And:

Deficits May Be Wearing Thin at the Fed
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01.../yourmoney/23view.html
WASHINGTON

THEY are only low-level rumblings, oblique signals of discontent that are stripped of any direct political threat.

But as President Bush embarked on his second term last week, it was hard to escape the sense that his longtime honeymoon with the Federal Reserve may be ending.

The Fed and its chairman, Alan Greenspan, have arguably been Mr. Bush's most important economic supporters. Mr. Greenspan gave his blessing to the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and, less enthusiastically, to those of 2003.

Despite Mr. Greenspan's reputation as a staunch opponent of fiscal deficits, he tiptoed around criticism of the soaring federal debt that Mr. Bush ran up in his first term and will almost certainly continue to run up in his second.

Perhaps most important, the Greenspan Fed cut interest rates and showered the nation with cheap money to soften the recession of 2001 and to keep consumers spending through nearly three years of rising unemployment.

But something new is afoot, and it is not just that the Fed is raising rates back to more normal levels. So far, a measured pace of rate increases has merely reflected the Fed's increased confidence that economic growth is on a steady course.

The new element is a rising concern at the Fed about the nation's imbalances: the federal deficit, which hit $413 billion in 2004; a low and declining national savings rate; evidence of speculative behavior among investors and consumers; and the country's enormous trade and financial deficit with the rest of the world.

In November, Mr. Greenspan noted that foreign claims on United States assets - essentially the nation's net indebtedness to the rest of the world - were now equal to one-quarter of the nation's gross domestic product. The trade deficit this year is almost certain to exceed $600 billion - nearly 6 percent of the nation's economy, and still climbing.

"This situation suggests that international investors will eventually adjust their accumulation of dollar assets or, alternatively, seek higher dollar returns to offset concentration risk," Mr. Greenspan said. That, he continued, would make the cost of foreign debt "increasingly less tenable."

To most economists, such comments are simply a statement of time-honored truth: a borrower who runs up huge debts will become a bigger risk to lenders and gradually have to pay higher rates. But Mr. Greenspan's comments also carried a warning: rising budget and trade deficits come at the price of higher interest rates.

The Fed fired off another warning in the published minutes from its policy meeting on Dec. 14, saying, "a number of participants voiced concerns about domestic and global financial imbalances." Some members of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets policy, were said to believe that the odds of "significant deficit reduction over the next few years were remote."

More surprising, the minutes said that some policy makers worried that the prolonged strategy of low rates might be fostering "excessive risk-taking" in financial markets and in the market for houses and condominiums. That sounded like a veiled reference to concern about a "housing bubble," an idea that Mr. Greenspan has repeatedly shot down.

A third veiled warning came on Jan. 13 from Timothy F. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In a speech to financial executives about risk management, Mr. Geithner suggested that investors had become too complacent about risks posed by global imbalances - particularly those in the United States.

Declaring that the current account deficit had reached an "unprecedented scale," even as investors continue to demand very low risk premiums, Mr. Geithner warned that they had little buffer for unexpected shocks.

"The present fiscal trajectory entails an uncomfortable scale of borrowing and little insurance against possible adverse outcomes in an uncertain world," he said.

In private sessions, Mr. Greenspan may well be warning Mr. Bush in blunter terms. The Fed chairman meets regularly with Vice President Dick Cheney and periodically with Mr. Bush.

There is a rumor in Washington - thus far unconfirmed - that Mr. Greenspan warned the White House in mid-December that it would have to take more credible steps than it has so far to meet its goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009.

If true, the unspoken but inescapable threat would be clear: if the Fed wasn't satisfied, Mr. Greenspan could signal his lack of confidence in Mr. Bush's fiscal plan. Investors would be shaken and Mr. Bush's credibility would be damaged.

What is certain is that the White House has started to signal tough cuts - trimming as much as $30 billion over six years at the Pentagon - and Mr. Bush has adjusted his rhetoric about the deficit.

Where administration officials routinely called the deficits "unwelcome but manageable," Mr. Bush and other top officials now describe deficit reduction as the cornerstone of their strategy for shoring up the foreign exchange value of the dollar.


Complicating the chemistry between the White House and the Fed this year is Mr. Greenspan's anticipated retirement in January 2006.

White House officials are trying to expand their list of potential successors. One early favorite - John B. Taylor, under secretary of the Treasury - is no longer in contention, according to people close to the White House.

White House officials are also cool about Martin Feldstein, the esteemed Harvard professor and director of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Mr. Feldstein has been a passionate supporter of tax cuts and partly privatizing Social Security - Mr. Bush's top economic priorities. But some officials are still angry that Mr. Feldstein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Ronald Reagan, criticized deficits run up by his boss.

MR. FELDSTEIN is not out of the running, but White House officials are looking at others
. One would be R. Glenn Hubbard, an architect of Mr. Bush's tax cuts and now dean of the Columbia Business School.

A third possibility is Ben Bernanke, a Fed governor and a respected economist. While at the Fed, Mr. Bernanke, not a Bush insider, has impressed White House officials and is likely to be named chairman of Mr. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. Though Mr. Bernanke would be a long shot to become Fed chairman, a successful tour at the White House could help his chances.

No matter who succeeds Mr. Greenspan, Mr. Bush will have to tread warily at the Fed. It is noteworthy that Republican Fed officials have tended to be more hawkish of late about raising rates sooner rather than later. The most dovish voice has been that of a Democrat - Janet Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. If tea leaves from the Fed indicate anything, it is that Mr. Bush could get tough treatment from officials tied to his own party.
 

desy

Diamond Member
Jan 13, 2000
5,442
212
106
As a Canadian the US debt does worry me some, our economies are too linked to not worry.
I've noticed import goods are definately getting cheaper around here but It also means jobs as a lot of our economy is commodity based . . . .
Theres good debt and bad debt I think the US is generating too much of the latter
 

Ferocious

Diamond Member
Feb 16, 2000
4,584
2
71
A co-worker just came back from Hamburg on Friday.

$5 for a cup of coffee???

He said it nearly doubled from his previous visit last year.
 

0marTheZealot

Golden Member
Apr 5, 2004
1,692
0
0
Why the hell you think I'm buying Euros and planning on moving to Europe after my doctorate is completed? It's not for the weather I'll tell you that much.
 

Infohawk

Lifer
Jan 12, 2002
17,844
1
0
Guys the chimp is a successful businessman. I'm sure he knows what he's doing. This is all part of his plan.