Honey, I shrunk the dollar

…global markets are realizing that we have two major vulnerabilities that this administration doesn’t want to address: We are importing too much oil, so the dollar’s strength is being sapped as oil prices continue to rise, and we are importing too much capital, because we are saving too little and spending too much, as both a society and a government.

“When people ask what we are doing about these twin vulnerabilities, they have a hard time coming up with an answer,” noted Robert Hormats, the vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. “There is no energy policy and no real effort to reduce our voracious demand of foreign capital. The U.S. pulled in 80 percent of total world savings last year largely to finance our consumption.” That’s a big reason why some “43 percent of all U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds are now held by foreigners,” Hormats said.

eTaiwan News