US Dollar About to Lose Reserve Currency Status – Fact or Fantasy?
by ilene - March 1st, 2011 5:52 pm
Courtesy of Mish
A number of sites are commenting on a Bloomberg video in which El-Erian, PIMCO Co-CEO says "Dollar could lose its reserve currency status".
Bloomberg: "Mohammad what does a weak dollar signal to you, a dollar that can’t jump up here on a day like we’ve seen today?"
El-Erian: "It is a warning shot to America that we cannot simply assume flight to quality, flight to safety. That people are starting to worry about the fiscal situation in the U.S. They are starting to worry about the level of debt. They are starting to worry about what they hear about states and municipalities. So, I would take this as a warning shot that we cannot assume that we will maintain the standing of the reserve currency as we have in the past."
Reserve Currency Definition
Before we can debate whether or not the US will lose reserve currency standing, we must first define what it means.
Investopedia defines Reserve Currency as follows.
"A foreign currency held by central banks and other major financial institutions as a means to pay off international debt obligations, or to influence their domestic exchange rate."
I accept that definition. Unfortunately Investopedia rambles on with nonsense about the implications: "A large percentage of commodities, such as gold and oil, are usually priced in the reserve currency,causing other countries to hold this currency to pay for these goods."
That sentence is a widely believed fallacy. The reality is no country is obligated to hold dollars to buy goods denominated in dollars.
Currencies are Fungible
Currencies other that illiquid currencies with low or no trading volume (think of Yap Island stones or the Cuban Peso) are fungible. It is a trivial process to switch from one currency to another.
You can buy gold or silver in any country, and I assure you those transactions do not all take place in dollars. Thus, just because a commodity is widely priced in dollars does not mean it only trades in dollars.
That holds true for oil as well.
I keep pointing this out, unfortunately to no avail, that oil trades in Euros right now. There is no selling of Euros to buy dollars on the front causing the oil producers to trade dollars for euros on the back end. The oil states simply sell oil for a price in Euros and then hold Euros in their…
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America’s Jobs Losses are Permanent
by ilene - October 29th, 2010 2:23 pm
America’s Jobs Losses are Permanent
Courtesy of PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS, originally published at CounterPunch
Now that a few Democrats and the remnants of the AFL-CIO are waking up to the destructive impact of jobs offshoring on the US economy and millions of American lives, globalism’s advocates have resurrected Dartmouth economist Matthew Slaughter’s discredited finding of several years ago that jobs offshoring by US corporations increases employment and wages in the US.
At the time I exposed Slaughter’s mistakes, but economists dependent on corporate largess understood that it was more profitable to drink Slaughter’s kool-aid than to tell the truth. Recently the US Chamber of Commerce rolled out Slaughter’s false argument as a weapon against House Democrats Sandy Levin and Tim Ryan, and the Wall Street Journal had Bill Clinton’s Defense Secretary, William S. Cohen, regurgitate Slaughter’s claim on its op-ed page on October 12.
I sent a letter to the Wall Street Journal, but the editors were not interested in what a former associate editor and columnist for the paper and President Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy had to say. The facade of lies has to be maintained at all costs. There can be no questioning that globalism is good for us.
Cohen told the Journal’s readers that “the fact is that for every job outsourced to Bangalore, nearly two jobs are created in Buffalo and other American cities.” I bet Buffalo “and other American cities” would like to know where these jobs are. Maybe Slaughter, Cohen, and the Chamber of Commerce can tell them.
Last May I was in St. Louis and was struck by block after block of deserted and boarded up homes, deserted factories and office buildings, even vacant downtown storefronts.
Detroit is trying to shrink itself by 40 square miles. On October 25, 60 Minutes had a program on unemployment in Silicon Valley, where formerly high-earning professionals have been out of work for two years and today cannot even find part-time $9 an hour jobs at Target.
The claim that jobs offshoring by US corporations increases domestic employment in the US is one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated. As I demonstrated in my syndicated column at the time and again in my book, How The Economy Was Lost (2010), Slaughter reached his erroneous conclusion by counting the growth in multinational jobs in the U.S. without adjusting…
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German Economy Minister Accuses US of Currency Manipulation
by ilene - October 25th, 2010 1:57 am
German Economy Minister Accuses US of Currency Manipulation
Courtesy of Mish
At long last a major player is finally pointing a the currency manipulation finger where it needs to be placed, the US.
Please consider Germany Says Fed Is Headed ‘Wrong Way’ With Monetary Easing
The Federal Reserve’s push toward easier monetary policy is the “wrong way” to stimulate growth and may amount to a manipulation of the dollar, German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke yesterday gave Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea an overview of the U.S. central bank’s efforts to jumpstart the world’s largest economy. His strategy, which investors expect will soon include greater asset purchases, drew criticism at the talks, said Bruederle.
“It’s the wrong way to try to prevent or solve problems by adding more liquidity,” Bruederle told reporters yesterday, saying that emerging-market officials were among the critics. Bruederle, a member of the Free Democratic Party, the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, stepped in for hospitalized Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble at the meeting.
“Excessive, permanent money creation in my opinion is an indirect manipulation of an exchange rate,” Bruederle said. The minister has taken a pro-market stance in his first year in office, criticizing state intervention in cases such as providing aid for General Motors Co.’s German Opel unit.
The Big Point
I have been saying for years that the US was every bit the currency manipulator we accuse China of being. My stance is that interest rate policy decisions in and of themselves are manipulative.
Moreover, we have since gone one step further with futile unwarranted rounds of quantitative easing baked into the cake.
Thankfully, the German economic minister is willing to say what anyone with an ounce of common sense has known for a long time: “Excessive, permanent money creation in my opinion is an indirect manipulation of an exchange rate.”
Correction:
Rainer Bruederle is "Bundesminister für Wirtschaft und Technologie", "Federal Minister for Economy and Technology", not Finance Minister. He was filling in for hospitalized Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble at the meeting.
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No Children, You Cannot ALL Be Export Economies
by ilene - October 20th, 2010 3:41 am
No Children, You Cannot ALL Be Export Economies
Courtesy of Joshua M Brown, The Reformed Broker
Children, children, please! Stop your bickering and sit down in a circle. China, have a seat, you too Brazil.
Japan, you get a Time Out. That kind of aggressive currency behavior simply will not be tolerated – you lose arts and crafts privileges for one week. Origami swans count, put that paper down!
The simple fact is that although you’d all like to be export-driven economies, this is a logical impossibility. If everyone in the G20 is to be a net exporter, then we’ll either have to convince Mongolia to start buying a lot of stuff or find alien life elsewhere in the galaxy to market and sell to.
Ah! Now you’re quiet! Very good children. Dropping your currency will be punished the same way as dropping your pants in this classroom – it is strictly forbidden.
And picking on Brazil will also not be put up with. Brazil is a growing boy and needs to be able to export, too. Stop snickering, Timmy, I saw right through your ‘Strong Dollar’ speech the other day. And China, your cosmetic rate hikes are just as phony, none of us are fooled.
Here’s the deal, children…If we can go the rest of the day without any more jawboning, saber-rattling or currency manipulation I will reinstate milk-and-cookies time this afternoon.
Do try to behave.
Read More:
Market Break into G20 (Points and Figures)
FX Wars Escalate: Brazil Cancels G20 Participation (Zero Hedge)
Brazil Boosts Firepower…but is it Shooting Blanks? (beyondBRICs)
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Talk of Trade Wars with China, Tariffs, and Currency Manipulation Move to Forefront; US Trade Imbalance – Whose Fault is It?
by ilene - June 11th, 2010 4:29 pm
Talk of Trade Wars with China, Tariffs, and Currency Manipulation Move to Forefront; US Trade Imbalance – Whose Fault is It?
Courtesy of Mish
Congress is one again shaking its currency-manipulation rattle. What’s different this time is Geithner appears to be listening.
Please consider Geithner signals U.S. patience waning on China currency.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner indicated U.S. patience on China’s currency policy was wearing thin on Thursday as a key lawmaker warned that he would move soon on legislation that would penalize Chinese goods.
Striking his toughest tone on the yuan since delaying a decision in early April on whether to name China a currency manipulator, Geithner told a U.S. Senate hearing Chinese policies had a harmful worldwide impact.
"A stronger renminbi would benefit China because it would boost the purchasing power of households and encourage firms to shift production for domestic demand, rather than for export," he told the Senate Finance Committee.
"The time is long past for any Treasury Department to admit publicly what everyone else already knows, that China is manipulating the value of its currency in order to gain an unfair advantage in international trade," said Charles Grassley, the senior Republican Senator on the committee.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer told Geithner to "be prepared" because lawmakers would move forward soon with legislation that would slap anti-dumping penalties and countervailing duties on goods from China and other countries with a "fundamentally misaligned" currency.
Senator Graham Threatens Veto-Proof Currency Legislation
Congress is increasingly frustrated with the China’s currency peg, so much so that senators suggest there may be enough votes to override a presidential veto. Bloomberg reports Graham Says China Yuan Measure Has ‘Huge’ Support in Congress.
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said legislation aimed at getting China to raise the value of its currency has “huge” support in Congress, and President Barack Obama “runs the risk” of being overridden if he vetoes it.
“The frustrations with China’s trade practices are growing by the moment,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.
He called the measure a “test” of the administration because Obama “campaigned that he would stand up to China currency manipulation.” Graham has joined Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, in sponsoring legislation targeting China’s yuan.
Lawmakers are pushing for a vote on
…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
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