Category Archives: Inflation

The Death Of The Mighty Dollar

China, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Foreign Policy, Individual Rights, Inflation

The trashing of the dollar by Bush/Barack is worrying those to whom we’ve been exporting our inflation. The US’s relationship with China is another fiasco. We’ve relied on that country to finance our debt, but kept up the sanctimonious preaching. (Search BAB’s “China” archive for details.)

How do you like that for hypocrisy, to say nothing of a performative contradiction? Preaching about human rights and individual rights while simultaneously fleecing your own people without flinching!

The patient Asians took what we dished, but now, they’re getting nervous about their finances.

From the FT.com:

China’s central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund.

In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s governor, said the goal would be to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies”.

Analysts said the proposal was an indication of Beijing’s fears that actions being taken to save the domestic US economy would have a negative impact on China.

“This is a clear sign that China, as the largest holder of US dollar financial assets, is concerned about the potential inflationary risk of the US Federal Reserve printing money,” said Qu Hongbin, chief China economist for HSBC.

Although Mr Zhou did not mention the US dollar, the essay gave a pointed critique of the current dollar-dominated monetary system.

Poisonous Pundits Never Go Away

America, Economy, Elections 2008, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation, Journalism, Media, Political Economy

Just a few months back, during the Bush era, high-ranking commentators like Larry Kudlow and proxies were touting the strength of the US stock market. Stocks were undervalued. The economy was “strongly reaccelerating.” “Goldilocks, Goldilocks,” Kudlow would crow from the CNBC rooftop. (What on earth does than mean?)

Kudlow and Company could not say enough about the economic benefits of a depreciating dollar. A weak dollar was an asymptomatic blessing, helping to make “US assets very cheap,” and thus ameliorating the trade imbalance. Never mind that it has made Americans poorer.

That was the man and his entourage’s cri de coeur.

“Today’s economic weakness is coming from the business side, not the sub-prime/housing/consumer side,” Kudlow wrote in January 2008.

Back then, Kudlow called for cheaper money and more credit: “the Fed needs to deliver a 50 basis point rate cut at its January 30 meeting. A big-bang rate cut would help businesses, consumers, and mortgage owners. It would make the cost of money cheaper and expand the overall liquidity base of the economy. … Inflation is the most overrated issue out there,” Kudlow asserted.

Kudlow failed to see that government had set the scene for the “minority Meltdown.”

Another snake-oil merchant is Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal. He wrote a book praising Bush’s quicksand society. It was titled “Bullish on Bush: How the Ownership Society Is Making America Richer.” Fox New’s Greta Van Susteren has seen fit to make the man who praised the state’s house-for-every-Hispanic schemes an authority on our economic woes.

Like Kudlow, Moore’s congenital inability to call the situation has not dented his career.

Now Kudlow has switched, conveniently, cribbing Peter Schiff’s analysis and pretending he was capable of the same prophetic predictions.

Why does he retain his job?

If you don’t believe me, check out the manner in which Schiff was maligned in 2007 by Kudlow’s crowd as another “Michael Moore,” for forewarning about the consequences of the US’s consumption and credit-based economy.

Future Of The Dollar Teeters

Barack Obama, Bush, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation

Trashed By “W,” and his “worthy,” wastrel successor, the once-solid dollar may soon be dumped as the world’s reserve in favor of a basket of fiat currencies.

Reuters:

“The U.S. deficit is so huge. This is why all countries, particularly East Asia, are concerned because we hold a lot of these assets. What happens if the U.S. dollar falls 40 percent? Many central bankers will be losing huge amounts of money.”

Yahoo Finance:

“Central banks hold their reserves in a variety of currencies and gold, but the dollar has dominated as the most convincing store of value — though its rate has wavered in recent years as the United States ran up huge twin budget and external deficits.”

Tough love indeed.

Big-Time Beggars

America, Barack Obama, Bush, China, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation

The political class yaks about the fiction of our dependency on foreign oil markets, exploded in “The Goods On Gas.”

We are to believe that, while gas trading is oh-so dangerous to America’s national security, accruing debt and selling it to China—that’s just dandy.
China, reports Bloomberg.com, is worried that its “Treasury holdings [will] be eroded by “reckless policies.”

I wonder whose?

BAB readers will know that “China, the U.S. government’s largest creditor, is ‘worried’ about its holdings of Treasuries and wants assurances that the investment is safe.”

“We have lent a huge amount of money to the United States,” Premier Wen Jiabao said at a press briefing in Beijing today. “I request the U.S. maintain its good credit, to honor its promises and to guarantee the safety of China’s assets.”

Honor? Come again!

“White House National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers, asked about Wen’s remarks, said overseas ‘confidence’ in Treasuries would be hurt without the administration’s steps to end the economy’s decline. President Barack Obama is relying on China to sustain buying of Treasuries amid record amounts of debt sales to fund a $787 billion stimulus package.”

China is enabling Barack as it did Bush. The only reason it doesn’t put an end to the US’s spending addiction is that it stands to lose a lot if it does:

“‘China won’t sell the U.S. debt now as that will only drive down Treasury prices, hurting not only the U.S. but also the value of its own investments,’ said Shen Jianguang, a Hong Kong- based economist at China International Capital Corp., an investment bank partly owned by Morgan Stanley”

“‘China’s purchases of American debt have been one of the few bolts keeping the wheels on the global economy,’ said Phil Deans, a professor of international affairs at Temple University in Tokyo. ‘If China stops buying, where does Obama’s borrowing to fund his stimulus come from?’”

This reminds me how brain dead are the Sinophobes. Beggars can’t be choosy, and they most certainly can’t afford to be as arrogant as the US is.