[Carlhole]

On balance, at the current time( relative to available energy supplies), the weakening dollar is a very good thing.

It seems every goddamn financial kerfuffle turns into some proto-armageddon here on peakoil.com. Remember when the Savings and Loan Debacle was a proto-armageddon?

The weakening dollar will serve to correct at least SOME of the gross imbalances in the world economy. Generally, strong currencies attract investment and are usally the result of a lot of a lot of economic development, hard work and smart planning. Look for the Asian currencies to become stronger, their exports more expensive.

Weak currencies create and impetus to manufacture and export goods. So a weak dollar is a very good thing for US manufacturing, which has taken huge hits over the past decade.

A weak currency would tend to make it MORE likely that food, good and services more often will be produced locally given the higher costs of transport. So, much of what the peakists have been clamoring for will be given a bit more of an economic chance.

The weakening dollar is all quite normal and positive as far as I can tell.

[roccman]

Well - seems to me the government is looking to default on everyone that has ever kept our debt bubble alive. Screw them all seems to be the plan...and the middleclass as well.

Hmmmmmmmmmm...

This gives me an idea...maybe I will do the same.

Catch me if you can fools.

Some Common FAQs

Huh? what was that??

"But my precious 715 FICO score - what am I to do?"

Last I heard one cannot eat a FICO score.

huh? what was that...

"employers check FICOs of prospecting employees..."

Hmmmmmmm...in a depression I am not convinced there will be enough jobs to go around.

Huh? what was that? - "they will garnish my wages..."

see above.

Huh what was that? - "landlords will check my FICO before renting to me"

see above

Huh what was that? - "I won't be able to get a car loan"

see above about gas being cost prohibitive.

MY ADVISE TO YOU IS TO BORROW EVERY WORTHLESS DOLLAR YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON AND BUY REAL THINGS...LIKE FOOD, CLOTHES, BOOTS, AMMO, GOLD SILVER, SUPPLIES.

Listen to the FICO queens at your own peril.

[Auntie_Cipation]

I'm sure this is a typo, but...

When I go to
http://www.freecharts.com/Commodities.aspx?page=mktcom , it say the US Dollar has dropped 77.930 and is now 0.550 (as of 5 minutes ago)

I'd say that qualified as dropping like a rock!

Check it out fast, I'm sure it will be 'corrected' any moment now...

[dunewalker]

Wow, it still reads 0.55---maybe this is for real! Appears that the dollar has dropped over 77 points this am...

[strider3700]

heh either jesus has returned and the sky is on fire back east or they got the values backwards/wrong.

if it went down .55 it would be close to 77 something I think. not too shocked to see a free site screw it up. If it happened with the official trackers the auto selloffs would be enough to collapse the dollar

here's a more realistic less end of the world tracker
http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DX&v=s
78.588 down .072

[roccman]

I see 78.60 here

http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DX

[Denny]

I listen to the Financial Sense news on the internet with Jim Puplava, most weeks. He's been predicting the sub-prime fiasco for several months now, along with the expected Federal Reserve response to inflate the money supply. Its all they know how to do in an emergency. I just wished I'd listened harder and cleared my U.S. shares. As it is, most of them are in commodity based businesses, so they are not doing as bad as the buck is.

[Carlhole]

Greenspan Speaks

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Gary North at LewRockwell.com', '.')..This was Greenspan's problem for two decades: a preference for data that were separated from a coherent economic theory of the business cycle.

When he was a young economist in the 1960's, he was a devoted advocate of the gold standard. He understood cause and effect in economic theory. He understood how monetary inflation distorts the capital structure, leading to booms and busts. But, at his accession to the Chairmanship of the Board of Governors in 1987, his personal love for, and deep faith in, economic statistics overcame his mid-1960's faith in stable money as a matter of economic principle. He adopted the print-and-spend policies that have plagued every nation that has adopted central banking, which is all of them except Monaco and Andorra.

To begin with statistics is to begin with built-in blinders to economic cause and effect. Statistics are merely what government agencies have sampled in the past. Following statistics rather than a policy of stable money, he spent his career at the FED looking into a government-built rear-view mirror. He got out as Chairman just in time for the day of reckoning to arrive. Bernanke will get to ride the tiger that Greenspan left for him, just as Paul Volcker left Greenspan the tiger – smaller and weaker – in 1987.

MORE INFLATION

Greenspan argued that FED policy in his era did not face the problem of price inflation that Bernanke faces today.

We were dealing in an environment back there where inflation was easing. We could have acted without the fear of stoking inflationary pressures. You can't do that any more. And therefore it's a different world.

If he were Pinocchio, his nose would have grown six inches. Greenspan spent his entire career at the FED warning against price inflation, which was just around the corner. Only once do I recall that he warned against deflation, and he refused even to use the word. That was in his October, 1998 testimony after the New York FED had called together New York banks that had lent billions to Long Term Capital Management, Ltd., which was about to go bankrupt. He warned against cascading cross defaults. But he did not call this what it would have been: mass deflation. Over and over in his career, he warned that inflation was the economy's main threat. Year after year, the FED inflated. Inflation is always the problem because the Federal Reserve System exists.
He thinks we are at long last entering the age of inflation – not the mamby-pamby inflation that the FED has engineered ever since 1982, but the real thing...

[Zardoz]

The big outfits do better, and we get screwed:

Declining dollar: Who wins, who loses - Concern about greenback weakness is building and experts see the trend continuing. Economists ponder the impact.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he dip could prove a big boost for marquee U.S. businesses that operate overseas, such as General Motors (Charts, Fortune 500), McDonald's (Charts, Fortune 500) or Boeing Co. (Charts, Fortune 500), and will see a "windfall" as a weaker greenback increases the dollar value of their overseas sales, says Michael Strauss, chief economist at the fund manager Commonfund.

But maybe the biggest beneficiaries of a weakened dollar are U.S. exporters, as domestically produced goods become cheap in the eyes of foreign buyers.

[Denny]

Maybe we could use a good man like this again, Jimmy Stewart's alter ego, George Bailey. He prevented bank runs and foreclosures. Too bad its was just a movie, but maybe there is a heart of gold in some bankers.

[Daculling]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Denny', 'T')oo bad its was just a movie, but maybe there is a heart of gold in some bankers.

[Revi]

I traded a US $20 for a Canadian twenty today, at par. This is the first time I can remember that happening. We are really in trouble. It used to be that the US dollar was a stable currency. You could plan ahead and save. I wonder what to do now. A friend suggested buying solar panels and storing them. they may be a better store of value than the paper we're saving.

[Plantagenet]

Euro zone economy rapidly slowing as low US dollar hurts exports

LONDON -- A sharp deterioration of the index in the survey of European purchasing managers suggests the rising euro and spreading credit crunch are casting a shadow over the euro zone's economy. The report offered new ammunition to politicians calling for the European Central Bank to cut interest rates.


NTC Economics said its purchasing managers index for the euro zone's manufacturing sector fell to 53.2 from 54.3 in August, while the index for the services sector dropped to 54 from 58. A combined measure slid to 54.5 from 57.4, the steepest drop since a decline recorded in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

-------------

Every cloud has a silver lining.

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'E')uro zone economy rapidly slowing as low US dollar hurts exports

LONDON -- A sharp deterioration of the index in the survey of European purchasing managers suggests the rising euro and spreading credit crunch are casting a shadow over the euro zone's economy. The report offered new ammunition to politicians calling for the European Central Bank to cut interest rates.


NTC Economics said its purchasing managers index for the euro zone's manufacturing sector fell to 53.2 from 54.3 in August, while the index for the services sector dropped to 54 from 58. A combined measure slid to 54.5 from 57.4, the steepest drop since a decline recorded in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

-------------

Every cloud has a silver lining.

[lateralus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'E')uro zone economy rapidly slowing as low US dollar hurts exports

LONDON -- A sharp deterioration of the index in the survey of European purchasing managers suggests the rising euro and spreading credit crunch are casting a shadow over the euro zone's economy. The report offered new ammunition to politicians calling for the European Central Bank to cut interest rates.


NTC Economics said its purchasing managers index for the euro zone's manufacturing sector fell to 53.2 from 54.3 in August, while the index for the services sector dropped to 54 from 58. A combined measure slid to 54.5 from 57.4, the steepest drop since a decline recorded in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

-------------

Every cloud has a silver lining.

[SinisterBlueCat]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lateralus', '
')The American dollar will soon be worthless, get over yourselves. Enjoy the last days of your self delusions.

[jboogy]

I was of a mind recently that this government would be able to manipulate monetary policy to stave of a crash ad infinitum . This latest rate reduction however smacks of desperation . The last few instances of free money did little to help the markets and confidence was in danger of bottoming . I believe what we are witnessing is the unabashed monetization of the federal debt . Monetization has NEVER worked to correct systemic flaws within an ailing economy . We are on the road to hyperinflation. A devalued currency may make the deficits and imbalances go away , but they'll come back eventually in disguise ,riding the coattails of worthless dollars.

[SinisterBlueCat]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jboogy', ' ')We are on the road to hyperinflation. .

[jboogy]

Take a look at Zimbabwe or weimar Germany 1930's to see what hyperinflation looks like.

[lateralus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SinisterBlueCat', 'y')ou wish for the average american to wake up? wake up to what? that 'wake up' line is such a cliche'

i