Re: US dollar keeps sinking endlessly--worth the same as the Canadian dollar now

In article <1190826993.440684.20140@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Masculist <MASCULIST@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sep 26, 6:22 am, PolishKnight <mar...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
In article <58iJi.742$kk4.472@trnddc08>,



"Avenger" <aven...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
">> >
Over $1.40 per Euro. I should have moved to Europe before this--it's
unaffordable to visit now.

Just because the Euro gained 20%? lol You have a very poor grasp of
economics. Exchange rates are relative. A US dollar is not the same as
a
HK,
Canadian or Australian dollar despite using the same name.
The BP is now about $2 US dollars and of course they will be worth
slightly
less in England. But that's not the reason for the high prices in UK.
I
can
remember when the BP was worth US $2.80 and the price of things was
cheap.
The lower exchange rate for the US dollar will make US goods more
attractive
to overseas buyers.
Moscow is the most expensive city on earth but this only means that
the
standard of living is lower because the average salaries are still a
fraction of the US. If the average salary in the US is $50k for
example,
you
would need $100k in Moscow to live at the same level.
The economy in the US is good because salaries are higher and prices
are
lower.

Agreed Avenger. You have a pretty good grasp on economics here.

The weak dollar is due to the Fed trying to clean up the mess that Alan
Greenspan made by using the housing industry as a kind of Keynsian ATM
machine.

But one benefit to the people in the US is that the prime rate has just
been
lowered so now mortgage rates will go down. Unfortunately, the real
estate
market is high and will probably drop. So even though the mortgage rates
are
low you may be buying something that will be worth only 90% what you paid
for it in a year or two.

This is a mixed blessed as you mention below since the low interest
rates caused a housing bubble. I heard a number of people tell me: "Buy
now! Interest rates are low." When I then pointed out that there was
no way I wanted to lock into a 30 year mortgage for a shack they said:
"It doesn't matter. NOBODY pays off a 30 year mortgage anyway. They
usually move."

So what's the point of paying more to "lock in" if the average person
moves every 7 years in a metro area anyway?

It's ironic that the economy basically moving into housing and hurting
manufacturing now has manufacturing helped by a weak dollar. Basically,
China gets a lot of U.S. dollars but can't really use them for anything
other than to buy U.S. products. They're like trillions of IOU's. :-)
Any jobs the Chinese took away from Americans making cheap Barbi dolls,
they'll eventually have to give back. It also discourages them from
doing anything stupid.

I don't think it worked any better than just letting the
dot.com industry redefine itself and move on. Yes, some people were
able to borrow against fictional paper gains in their homes but they
lost income through having to pay those loans back AND in taxes.

Not to mention the fact that if the RE market drops (it will) they will
have
0 equity and in effect own nothing. If they were smart they would have
taken
those low % home equity loans and put it into something paying higher.

I think that's a really really really really bad idea.



Turning the US $ into the US Peso is GWB's only plan to balance the
trade deficit. Nothing about actually doing something to improve
what
the US has to trade.

You're forgetting that the US has always, and especially since WWII,
had
it
easy. Europe was being rebuilt and the US had an advantage and people
became
used to this. Now, when other countries have developed their
industries
and
the US has to actually compete it's going to be a whole new world.

Yes, but that rebuilding was done about 1960 or so therefore Western
Europe's financial woes are clearly due to something else.

Actually it took until the 80's to really show any effect about the time
Thatcher was in office and in the East it really wasn't until about 2000.

Er, England's infrastructure was largely undamaged by the war. There
was bombing in London, of course, but the rest of the country probably
enjoyed the same industrial surge that the U.S. did at the time.

One of the arguments I often hear from defenders of chivalry was that
war was "healthy" because it killed off excess men but the women could
have more children in another generation.

Rather than the infrastructure being the issue, the bigger damage was
breadwinning men being killed and therefore unable to support their
families and "rebuild" or at least maintain the infrastructure. So many
people in our society apparently now believe that when women bear
children, they somehow magically come out as engineers, doctors,
scientists, etc. and forget that men are needed to support them.



Foreigner's who move to the U.S. say that what they think is so great
about the country is the ability to start new small businesses easily
and quickly. In addition, taxes are far lower. The German tourists
who
traverse the U.S. countryside in their strong Euro's are largely a
minority as most Europeans don't have a lot of money in spare income
(those that are employed, that is.) It's basically a big theme park
with a lot of workers who are comfortably fed and housed, but don't own
a lot.

That's because they don't save and put at least 1/2 down on a property
and
take a shorter term 15 yr mortage. And don't borrow any money on your
property.

In addition, Europe is getting saddled down with the same ugly form of
marxism that we have in the form of feminism and political correctness.
Italian men are going to jail for kissing girls on the cheek. France
is
projected to be an Islamic nation in about 40 years or so.

I don't think they're that dumb. You'll notice that many countries are
making very tough laws on immigrants.

You're right: It will be a whole new world but then again, that's been
the case for the last 50 years or so. So it's a good for ANYONE who
thinks they can rest on the status quo.

The ONLY unchanging thing throughout all of this is that men run
things.

Men will always run things, it's Nature. Sure, you may get a prime
minister
here or there but it's not in a female's nature to be in charge.

That plus massive outsourcing of professional positions and massive
illegal immigration is turning the US into a 3rd world country with
low-paid domestic workers, a debased currency and a low interest
rate.
That low interest rate will make foreign investors turn away from
the
US

Why would they turn away from investing in the US? Land and real
estate
would be more attractive to them.

--and pull their money out in favor of countries that can pay more.
And seeing as how the US has been living on money from foreign
investors for a long time, and is incredibly in debt (they're about
to
hit the current debt ceiling, $8.695 trillion, I think, Oct 1), the
outlook is seriously bad.

US corporations, which long ago became multi-nationals, make most of
their money, or at least most of their growth, overseas (which has
been leading to the rise in the Dow--the US component of their
growth
has been small), and don't give a hoot about the domestic situation.
In real terms, US workers have been making successively less each
year, and their savings rate has gone negative.

US always had a low savings rate. Besides, what you earn is relative
to
what
you have to pay for goods. Prices are low in the US. Even Mexicans and
Canadians come over the border to buy things.

The US does seem to be
heading towards 3rd world status.

Well, that's my view, anyway. Can anyone point out where this
analysis
is wrong and the picture is actually rosier than I think?

What's funny is that the same people who decry the eeevil corporations
putting the U.S. towards a 3rd world status are those that welcome the
same corporations hiring illegal immigrants just to keep the marxist
birthrate up. Hilarious.

It kind of reminds me of Hitler in his bunker doing ANYTHING to hurt
everyone else just so long as he can pretend like he's still relevent.
The leftist/marxist goal of a utopian society is long gone.

Europe is much less socialist than it was in the 70's. Much less.

Yes and no. I think Europe has begun to catch on to the sick political
correctness so it's interesting to see countries that are totally white
such as Ireland engage in white guilt, for example, or Italy putting men
in jail for kissing girls in the office on the cheeck.

Most of the architecture of socialism is still in place and trust me,
American commies know whenever they whine the U.S. doesn't have European
healthcare and daycare. Those are the HOLY GRAILS of leftism in the
states because the lack of them is KILLING feminism like dumping
nicotine into their garden.

Sadly, the same thing happened with Reagan during the 80's: he largely
left all the socialist systems in tact although he did change popular
sentiments towards them. Welfare and even social security are now
largely bad words here.

The Labour
Party in the UK was like the Communist Party. Thatcher damaged them to
such
a degree that they look almost mainstream today.

The problem is that the "right" in Britain and France is about on the
same level of the moderate leftist here.

Excellent analysis Mark. You're great on this economic and
geopolitical stuff. Maybe I should become a republican?

Smitty

Thanks Smitty!

The problem is, I'm not a 100% local republican as you well know. I'm
disgusted by rockefeller republicans (Dole/Specter/Bush) and RINO's
(McCain,Schwartzeneggar) basically trashing the republican principles
while bending over backwards to try to out-democrat the democrats. I
can fully understand GA's disgust with them.

That said... however, there still are true (or close to true)
conservatives on the right end of the aisle. They are filibustering the
Democratic congress (and ironically, moderate GW's amnesty bill even as
the Dems are using him as their poster boy for evil).

It's really difficult to find anything to like about the Dems on a
collective level. They support a minimum wage and I largely agree with
this (I don't like employers exploiting workers because then we have to
live with the fallout in terms of bad service and the community) but
this is largely offset by them driving wages down with illegal
immigration and welfare. As long as those two latter systems are in
place, the "minimum" wage is often the STANDARD wage.

Other than that, they don't have a lot going for them. A few workers
righs initiatives and consumer rights types of things, but usually
watered down for their scratch-back buddies in their districts.

Whose a Democrat? Usually people angry at a single issue with the
Republians (Iraq, family courts and lack of helping men, etc.) and
ironically they run into the arms of the jerks these bad men are in bed
with. In other words, mostly knee jerk reactions and spite.

There are democratic white men who like to feel superior and bash other
whites as a kind of cheap martyrdom (they'll send someone ELSE into the
lions for their cause.)

The rest: women and minorities, generally are in it for the goodies out
of either greed or fear (or both.)

In hindsight, it's going to be seen as a huge pivot in history when the
Dems allowed their irrational hatred of their friend in politics, GW
Bush, develop into a love affair with radical Islam. Islam is now
effectively a protected and special interest class in the Democratic
party and it must be fun to watch Steven Speilburg, Betty Friedan (if
she's still alive) rub elbows with Ahmadinejad...

I'm reminded of the cute line from an SNL skit about a meth-addict house:

"One of the great things about being a meth addict is the random sex.
The only problem is that sometimes your sex partner tries to kill you."

"Yeah, that can be annoying."

regards,
PolishKnight
.

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