So, I am out at dinner tonight with some old friends.
Once of them is a flaming liberal....as in wayyyyyy left.
Everything is going fine, until she mentions an upcoming trip to Australia...

Then out of nowhere she starts carrying on about how if it werent for President Bush, this trip wouldnt be costing so much...and "since Bush devalued the dollar" the currency in Australia was going to be more than it used to be.

So...two observations here...

First, for someone to think that anyone (yes, even a President) can single handedly influence the value of the dollar, they are foolish, and simply do not understand how the reserve system works.

Secondly...isnt it interesting that liberals are annoyed that our President would make the value of the dollar go down? Seems to me that would benefit countries that promote the very political climate these idiots stand for...but oh look.....since they RELY on the American dollar, they cant spend their holiday in a foreign land....damnit liberals annoy the shit out of me!

Well the Bush administration is pretty much single handedly responsible for the decrease in the value of the dollar.  There current policies support a weakend dollar.  On top the huge increase in spending that has occured under the Bush administration has also brought the value of the dollar down.

When you request a credit limit increase and then max out your credit cards does your credit score go up or down?  It goes down because you are more at risk for not being able to pay it back.  The same goes for the US economy compared to other countries.

Not to mention that the Bush administration has paid only token lip service to the "strong dollar policy".  The current fear is that Asian governments are going to bail on using the USD as a reserve currency, further weakening the dollar.

I am seeing that happen in Taiwan now.  The TWD (here it's usually called the NTD, but Yahoo calls it the TWD, so there ya go) is strongly tied to the USD, and the government here has a long tradition of manipulating the currency exchange rate to "promote" trade.  Well, nine months ago the TWD was as high as 34.5:1.  It's down around 31:1 now, which is a 11% strengthening -- the Taiwanese government apparently decided that they *had* to drop the tie because the USD was simply getting too weak, gutting Taiwan's export profits.

On the plus side for me, a salary that used to be the equivalent of US$35K is now US$39K.

finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&from=USD&to=TWD&submit=Convert

Quoted: Well the Bush administration is pretty much single handedly responsible for the decrease in the value of the dollar.  There current policies support a weakend dollar.  On top the huge increase in spending that has occured under the Bush administration has also brought the value of the dollar down. When you request a credit limit increase and then max out your credit cards does your credit score go up or down?  It goes down because you are more at risk for not being able to pay it back.  The same goes for the US economy compared to other countries.

Whoa ! Whoa ! No talking sense is allowed in ARFCOM GD!

Let's not forget that a weak dollar means our goods are relatively less expensive to other countries, and this will promote the purchase of US goods.

Hey - if you can afford a trip to Australia, you shouldn't complain about the price. If it costs too much, stay home.

2 things:

1. It is always President Bush's fault for everything.

2. You need smarter friends, or realize that some people are just that stupid.

US Dollars are a commodity.  There is currently not a strong demand for USD abroad.  The U.S. gov is spending significant USD abroad making a large portion of the supply of USD that in turn requires less USD to be purchased in the exchange mkt.

Additionally, the "weak" (I call BS on that one) USD is a componant of the "high" oil prices.  "Devalued" USD increases the perceived cost of oil.

Currency is a fluid mkt just like any other commodity.  

Where is that link for the price/supply/demand variable pie chart?

In the future don't get a redneck started on macro econ

Quoted: gutting Taiwan's export profits.

imports are more expensive and increase spending on domestic goods,
exports are cheaper and increase demand(sales) for US goods
off-shoring is not as attractive and jobs stay in the US

all good for Americans which will make the next Republican easier to elect

but like all things this wil be cyclical.

wganz
¶

Rewind to 1984, when my liberal asshat college professor blames Reagan for the strong dollar which is "too strong" and costing American jobs.  Back then the $ traded 1-for-1 with the pound!!

GunLvr

Quoted: First, for someone to think that anyone (yes, even a President) can single handedly influence the value of the dollar, they are foolish, and simply do not understand how the reserve system works.

It comes down to this.

Liberals WANT a president with that much power. Liberals yearn to be ruled over by a strong hand to make decisions for them. Everyime a liberal bitches about the President and blames him for everything, its really just a ssip up of the fact that they want a pres with that much power to come along.

Quoted: Quoted: gutting Taiwan's export profits. imports are more expensive and increase spending on domestic goods, exports are cheaper and increase demand(sales) for US goods off-shoring is not as attractive and jobs stay in the US all good for Americans which will make the next Republican easier to elect but like all things this wil be cyclical. wganz ¶

Umm, I was talking about Taiwan, not the U.S.  Currency pegs suck if you're on the declining end.  You work just as hard as before but get less for it.  This is why Taiwan's government has intervened and shifted the peg.

The President alone can't strenghten the dollar, but he sure can fuck it up.  He can't suddenly make US businesses successful, that's in the hands of the companies, but he can easily put policies in place that can tank businesses.

He can't singlehandedly make 30 million Mexicans move to the US, but by not closing the border, he sure can fuck things up for the rest of us.

All he'd have to do is twirl his finger in the air and the border would be sealed shut, but he won't bother.  The next three years will see millions more illegal Mexican immigrants in the SW, but coming soon to a theater near you.

The dollar still spends fine at Wal-Mart.