Friday, October 09, 2009

Weak Dollar, Strong Dollar Part II


The strength of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies is of utmost importance to all of us. Unfortunately until the Treasury replaces George with a picture of Betsy Ross in a low cut V-neck displaying ample cleavage our shallow pop culture won't care until it's too late. How about ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and even Fox as well as all the rest of the alphabet networks? A passing mention, maybe - as long as it doesn't directly reflect badly on the current regime.

The falling dollar didn't start with the Obama administration. The Bush Administration was no friend to a strong dollar policy. The dollar began it's decline during the recession of 2000-2001 and despite a few brief turnarounds it is heading south at a breathtaking pace.

The thing that is so frightening now is that the Obama administration is barely paying lip service to a strong dollar while pursuing policies guaranteed to push it down to a point where global investors abandon it altogether. This is bad on many, many levels.

The trajectory of economic policy coming from Washington is clear. The things important to investment and growth are clearly in the cross hairs of the Obama plan. Capital gains tax going up. Income tax on the investor class going up. Tax and entitlement pressure on the entrepreneurial class going up. New entitlements requiring trillions of dollars in new U.S. debt. More vigorous antitrust enforcement and more regulation of the shining star of American ingenuity telecom in the form of net neutrality. Then there's the Climate Change scam and a new wave of protectionism and tilted rules for union organizing. Basically the folks in Washington are guaranteeing that the United States will be relinquishing the crown of the King of the Global Economy.

What's worse is that the opposition called the Republican Party is so bereft of motivating ideas there is absolutely nowhere to go. Those of us diametrically opposed to the vision of Obama, Soros, Pelosi and Axelrod have no one to rally around. The truth about this is so evident that the Democratic machine and their friends in the media are targeting Fox News, (Hannity, O'reilly, Beck), talk radio (Limbaugh, Levin) as the face of the Republican party. It's working. Only Sarah Palin, damaged goods in her own right, scares them. Unfortunately Sarah has done herself no favors. Instead of trying to impress those in the middle where elections are won and lost she is pandering to the rabid. She's not a far right "wing nut" as she is being portrayed but she's doing absolutly nothing to dispel the notion. She's taken on corruption in her own party and challenged the status quo for the good of her state - that's exactly what we need now. Too bad she has botched her chance to impress upon the people that she's not the portrait the opposition media has painted.

The question of the fate of the American greenback hangs in the balance and so to all of our fortunes. The current path under Obama is unsustainable and unattractive ( in my eyes). When is someone going to lay out a better path?



CW

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