Bush to World: "The Weak Dollar is Your Problem, Not Ours"
And Ford to City: "Have I dropped dead yet?"
Wow, not my best. Anyway, this is part one of two-part series on how weak the dollar is and how it will greatly affect my plans to study abroad next fall (I know, I know, worst than death right?). I mean the weak dollar is also helping to put more people below the poverty line than ever before, as well as destroy small businesses (in this country and abroad), but who cares? I want my dollar to mean something when I'm traveling in Europe for a semester! You listening, John Snow?
U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow told European finance ministers that if other countries want to see the U.S. exchange rate improve, they should retool their own economies.
Apparently not. Good thing Bush is replacing him. I just know Dubya will pick someone who is willing to fight tooth and nail against whatever opposition there may be in order to get the US economy back on track. What do you think, Thomas L. Friedman?
". . .All indications are that this White House is looking for someone even weaker than Snow."
Fantastic.
posted by David @ 5:09 AM
1 Comments:
I don't think it's fair to say that the increasing rates of poverty and small business failure are directly linked to the dollar's decline. The poverty rate began increasing more than two years before the dollar peaked in 2002. Increasing health care costs and unemployment are more to blame. Many believe the job market will improve only after the weakened dollar pushes up American exports and attracts some manufacturing jobs.
As for the rest of the world - the countries with the most impoverished people are also the countries that peg their currencies to ours. As the dollar drops, so does China's yuan, making their goods cheap, exports high, and manufacturing sector rather busy. That means more jobs for impoverished Chinese people. Businesses in Japan and Europe are feeling the pinch now after years of relying on American consumers. Their governments had no business letting their economies become so dependent on foreign demand.
There's definitely a problem, but don't blame this all on Bush. There are plenty of economists out there who say he and his team are right to let the dollar weaken. Though getting the defecit under control is surely part of the solution.
Here's a WSJ article that says all of this more convincingly: [http://www.nwanews.com/story_print.php?paper=adg&Business=section&storyid=101010]
-- Danny Moldovan
P.S. Nice blog.
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