right now the dollar is falling hard
Who said gold? But right now a dollar is 1/1400 of an oz. We dont need a commodity, the euro is a basket currency already. There is already talk about redoing Bretton-Wood read http://www.brettonwo...ct.org/art-564824
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
|
|
The Euro may not survive; and B-W-II is a non-starter.
I'm having trouble following the thread of logic here. How does this relate your proposal to devaluing the dollar by 12% by fiat?
Yes, the Euro was assembled from a fixed basket of currencies. And it's acting to hamper economic recovery in many countries that use it and some say it may not survive. As Krugman and others have pointed out, if the economy collapses in New York, people can move to Texas where opportunites might be better. There are larger barriers (e.g. language) for someone in Greece to start over in, say, Finland. If the pain does not relent, it's hard to imagine countries saying they'll strangle efforts at recovery just to keep it. http://www.guardian....e-single-currency http://krugman.blogs...ible-is-the-euro/ The IMF is a creature of its members, like the UN. They already have powers they're not using - B-W-II isn't needed (and wouldn't work anyway). Fred Bergsten's congressional testimony from 2004: http://www.iie.com/p...fm?ResearchID=209 Third, China's peg to the dollar essentially blocks the participation of all of East Asia (even, to a partial extent, Japan) in the needed adjustment process. China is the world's most competitive major economy, and has become even more competitive as it has ridden the dollar down against virtually all other currencies, and its neighbors are understandably reluctant to let their currencies rise against the dollar because doing so would mean they would also rise against the renminbi. Thus Korea, Taiwan, and Japan have resisted fully participating in the global adjustment process along with China even though their exchange rates are nominally floating; their own trade-weighted exchange rates have either risen minimally (Japan and Korea) or, like China's, actually declined (Taiwan). How does this relate to your original proposition that the dollar can be devalued by 12% relative to the euro by fiat? Cheers, Scott. |
|
you have stated that we couldnt peg the dollar
I have shown you in multiple ways that it can be done by fiat by our president. What are you arguing about now?
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
|
|
No you haven't.
You've made lots of assertions.
We're just going 'round. I'll quit now. But, before I do, here's a recent paper that may make my points a little more clearly - http://www.gs.cornel...con/cae/09-02.pdf (31 page .pdf): [Substitute "dollar" for "rupee" and "Euro" for "dollar"]. The present paper is not concerned with the rationale behind a central bankÂs aim, but in the pure mechanics of how it goes about achieving its objective. Suppose, for whatever be the reason, the RBI [Reserve Bank of India] wants to devalue the rupee vis-a-vis the dollar. Since India is on a floating exchange rate system, where banks and other foreign exchange dealers are free to announce the exchange rate (or, equivalently, the rupee price of the dollar), the RBI cannot influence the rate by diktat but by buying and selling on the foreign exchange market. It is believed that the way the RBI devalues the rupee is to ask a public-sector bank to buy dollars from the market. This typically raises the price of dollars and so, equivalently, causes the rupee to depreciate. Usually, the RBI stays behind the scene and the only visible action on the market is that of a public sector bank making a large purchase of dollars. Here is Mint newspaperÂs web edition, Livemint.com, August 20, 2008 (2:45 pm), speculating about central bank intervention in India: ÂState-run Indian banks were seen selling dollars to help the rupee recover from a 17-month low [ ]. IndiaÂs central bank uses state-run banks to intervene if it wants to slow a rupee decline or prevent it from rising too quickly, and private bank dealers said WednesdayÂs dollar selling looked like intervention. If the market is driving up the value of a currency, central banks have little power to counteract that over more than a short period of time. Too much money is involved - especially in the case of the dollar (which is the currency used for most of the world's commerce). But since the main issue with the dollar is that the Yuan is vastly undervalued, this discussion about the Euro has been a distraction anyway... ;-) HTH. Cheers, Scott. |
|
Assuming we can, are you saying we should?
Because here's the funny thing: A few people here (Yes, you and BeeP) keep citing examples of bad legislation or stupid statements from politicians, as proof that government can't be trusted to do anything.
In your case Net Neutrality seems to be a big issue. Every example of bad technology decisions from a government agency -- even if it was 80 years ago http://iwt.mikevital....iwt?postid=36076 -- is proof that government shouldn't be allowed to do anything. But when it's something that you think should happen, sure, "tank the dollar". You could argue, if you want, whether the solution to bad government decisions is fewer government decisions or better government decisions. That is, in fact, the language lots of conservatives like to use. But it's pretty obvious to everyone else that they don't really mean it, since they only use that argument when trying to prevent decisions they don't like. --
Drew |
|
for you and nother
Nother stated way up thread you cannot lower the dollar. I have proved that if nixon did it obama certainly can. Nother seems to have some strange ideas that it couldnt hold, with a law making it illegal to trade outside the peg it certainly could. Works the same way it did with the ruble. If you take more than 1k outside the country jail time. If you are a entity outside the US attempting to trade outside the limit US assets seized and a warrant issued.
Now on whether it is a good idea or not isnt the issue, the question becomes whether on can do it. A floating currency's value is based upon the markets expectation of future worth. Excessive speculation warps that. That is why gold is at extreme highs and dollars acting as a safety currency is losing lustre http://www.nysun.com...-echoes-in/87088/ Only days after the former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan warned that Âfiat money has no place to go but gold, the dollar has collapsed to a new low.International finance is broken badly yet no one at the fed or the government appears to be paying attention. Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
|
|
One part I can agree on
"International finance is broken badly"
I just realized this conversation sounds like all the ones I read about food laws. Until you fix the ridiculous corn subsidies -- which encourage poisonous livestock practices, unsustainable farming, and rampant health issues -- you're rearranging the deck chairs. --
Drew |
|
/me sneaks in here to say...
...glad to see you agree that government intervention into markets is a bad idea....
nudge, wink, say no moah :-) Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
|
|
Just a formality ...
Bad intervention into markets is a bad thing, no matter who is doing it.
Good intervention into markets is a good thing, no matter who is doing it. --
Drew |
|
Oh, I think they're paying attention
they just have come to the realisation that the US' days of being in a position to do something about it are over.
|
|
RCP?
Nother stated way up thread you cannot lower the dollar. Did not. I said you can't do it (effectively, for a meaningful period of time) if the market is driving the value up. http://iwt.mikevital....iwt?postid=35575 and http://iwt.mikevital....iwt?postid=35570 Nother seems to have some strange ideas that it couldnt hold, with a law making it illegal to trade outside the peg it certainly could. Works the same way it did with the ruble. Is the Ruble a Reserve Currency? Is the Yuan/RMB? No, they aren't. Things are different for Reserve Currencies like the dollar - http://en.wikipedia..../Reserve_currency A reserve currency, or anchor currency, is a currency which is held in significant quantities by many governments and institutions as part of their foreign exchange reserves. It also tends to be the international pricing currency for products traded on a global market, and commodities such as oil, gold, etc. You want to crash the world trade system by saying the dollar can't be taken outside the US? Now on whether it is a good idea or not isnt the issue, the question becomes whether on can do it. Box - 'I didn't say it wouldn't destroy the world economy, but he could do it.' :-/ Last I looked, Obama isn't Führer. There's a big difference in going off a fixed exchange rate for the dollar and imposing a fixed exchange rate for the dollar. But I'm repeating myself... That is why gold is at extreme highs and dollars acting as a safety currency is losing lustre I thought you were not advocating a return to a peg to gold? Gold has no more intrinsic value than Darmstadium - people pay for it because they want it, not because it has special intrinsic worth. Adjusted for inflation, the gold price peak was $2176 in 1980 according to http://goldprice.org...d-gold-price.html It's now at ~ $1294. It's got a ways to go to get up to where it was. So much for being a hedge against inflation and a weak dollar... FWIW. Cheers, Scott. |
|
point out the post where I said the USD couldnt travel?
if you are travelling outside you exchange prior to leaving. It wouldnt do anything to the billions already in circulation outside.
putting a currency on a peg is exactly the same as taking it off obama has the same authority as nixon had and more. Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
|
|
How would this work?
I want to buy 10M barrels of oil from Saudi Arabia. I have $750M in cash in the bank in the US.
Whoops. Oil is priced in dollars. My dollars can't leave the US under the Boxley Plan. Now what? Tell me how I would pay for the oil I want that is priced in dollars. Waiting with baited breath, I remain, Scott. |
|
its a dollar transaction end to end
you wire it to the saudis just like now
if the saudis wanted to be paid in euro's they would get the pegged rate. Dollar transactions are just that. Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
|
|
Last post on this topic (I hope).
You can't have it both ways.
You're wanting to peg the dollar the way the Chinese peg the yuan/RMB or Euro or Yap or unicorn horns. The Chinese can do that because they control the amount of currency that can leave the country and the exchange of yuan/RMB for hard currency. if the saudis wanted to be paid in euro's they would get the pegged rate. What does that mean? I am sending money (assuming it can leave the country), in dollars, to them for the oil. They "would get the pegged rate" from whom? If they wanted Euros, they would have asked for Euros. Lets say they do want Euros. For my $750M I could get 561M Euros on the open market today. You're proposing that my $750M buy 493M (-12%) Euros, from somewhere, thanks to the Boxley Plan peg. Why would I want to do that again? I wouldn't unless there was no choice. A peg only works when there's something standing behind the currency that serves as the ultimate arbiter of its value. In the gold-standard days, it was the US government saying, "bring me 35 pieces of paper and I'll give you a shiny metal token". Now, the dollar is the only currency that can be used to buy Treasuries and invest in the US economy. A peg doesn't work for a floating reserve currency. For the n-th time: The cat is out of the bag - we aren't going back to fixed exchange rates. "But we could..." No, we can't. There's not enough money to do so. Also, too: http://www.pkarchive...lobal/canada.html Here's what the world looked like in 1960: Almost all countries had fixed exchange rates with their currencies pegged to the U.S. dollar. International movements of capital were sharply limited, partly by government regulations, partly by the memory of defaults and expropriations in the '30s. And most economists who thought about the international monetary system took it for granted, explicitly or implicitly, that this was the way things would continue to work for the foreseeable future. Prove me wrong. Give me some links. I've had my say on this topic, I think. Cheers, Scott. |
|
heh
Mundell was born in my hometown.
|
|
It's nice that some are reading this thread closely ;-)
|