karmaguy

Is the US Dollar Doomed?

Great Comments by all. I'm always interested in reading how Americans view their present social, financial and economic problems.
A major problem I see is Americans inability to keep in check Special Interest groups (which have only one purpose and that is to corrupt the Federal and State legislators so that their intersts are fulfilled). For example, did you know that a number of years ago Brazil was faced with its own energy crisis and their government stood up one day in a single voice and said "We'll make every gas station in Brasil carry ethanol made from sugar cane and every car in Brasil will have the ability to operate on it and we'll do all of this in 7 years. (Basically, they accomplished it in 5)" Fast forward many years to present day USA. Ethanol in the U.S. is being produced now in tremendous quanities very inefficiently and 3 times the cost of the Brasil method (because we're using corn instead of sugar cane)(This, also, is having a great influence now on the price of other crops as farmers opt for the safety of a government-subsidized program and therefore plant fewer acres of other crops) AND WHY ARE WE USING CORN???????? Because 7 very wealthy families in U.S. have managed to Special Interest the Congress into passing protectionist laws in that sugar in US is protected from world prices and instead sells for some 3 times the world price.
I'm not even taking into account that Congress won't demand that oil companies have their stations also provide ethanol or that car manufacturers structure car engines to run efficiently on ethanol. Today, if ethanol was made from world price sugar and available nationwide the price per gallon would be $2.00. Do you really think at those prices the US would have any economic interest in the Middle East!? Let's not even visit the question "What if 7 years ago George W. had have said "let's spend 1 trillion dollars on researching alternative fuel sources instead of spending it on some insignificant sand castle called Iraq." (Side question for my American friends: 45 years ago you spent billions of dollars and thousands of lives on a place called Vietnam and where did it get you in the end - 45 years from now will you be asking the same question about Iraq? Is not Vietnam today doing multi-huge business with the US despite what happened 45 years ago and do you honestly think that no matter who's running the show in Iraq they also will be doing business as usual with the US?