k9s-4-k8

A Strong U.S. Dollar Isn't in Anyone's Best Interest

Dave, Where are you buying that kool-aid? While Europe does have a somewhat different set of problems, it has more to do with policies that stifle innovation and instead look to reward those who suck from the teats of government aid, but that's another issue.
While the U.S. mortgage backed debacle is at the root of this recession, European bankers were reticent about doing their own homework regarding the viability of the mortgage backed securities they were investing as well as the amount of leverage they used in order to benefit a few extra basis points. This is the same irresponsible risk management that American banks pursued. No difference. But Europe is actually worse off. Most of these countries have the majority of their money in just a handful of banks. A number of these same banks used 40-1 leverage. On top of that, they don't have sustainable consumer based economies. Their economies are supported by exports, and tourism. They're dead in the water till the U.S. economy recovers.


On Apr 03 10:19 AM Dave Wrixon wrote:

> Europe has a different set of problems to the US. Europe's problems have been largely caused by the US, but are generally less severe, although there is precious little recognition of this. Consequently,
> Europe is still being protective of its inflationary postion, which
> is probably largely justified, even though there have been significant
> efforts to stimulate.
>
> The pig-headness, largely stems from the American assumption, that
> the Europeans must unquestionably do as they are told to help solve
> the US's problems, even though their is little consensus that American
> leaders actually have a clue what has happened or what to do about
> it.
>
> If America is to get cooperation in resolving its crisis, then these
> Neo-Imperialist attitudes will not help, either vis-a-vis Europe
> or anywhere else.
>
> Having said that I am sure that will join me in lauding Obama for
> addressing one of the most obvious issues, which is the over-investment
> in military hardware, which frankly the US economy can no longer
> support.