April 22, 2003
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:Random Thoughts
Listen to the two Iran-related pieces here (WMA = 1 , 2 ), especially the second comment by an Iranian Immigrant. George Bush "The Messiah"? When's the last time you heard that from the notorious "Arab Street"? (update: OK Persian Street).
Also, reading the WSJ site today I was confronted with this with this strange advertisement apparently depicting a crash-test dummy lecturing Robert Byrd, Ricardo Montalban, Clarence Thomas and Sumner Redstone on workplace safety. It's odd in a hokey nostalgic way I just can't describe. Somehow it seemed to cry for captioning by Lileks, so I sent it along.
Finally, George Monbiot follows his negative interest rate policy with another looney economic suggestion - massive Euro appreciation. In the process, he compares the U.S. economy to that of a "West African state". I'm sure his new colleagues in the EU will be pleased with the "basket case" moniker (since many of them run larger deficits than ours) and enjoy watching the value of their U.S. holdings plummet for George's sake. I forwarded this article to a colleague of mine who worked in London for twelve years, and he responded "Ah - the Guardian, the good old days arguing socialism with my drunken friends." (via Bros. Judd)
Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at April 22, 2003 9:58 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksInteresting - that Iranian dude seems to have become so assimilated as an american, he's adopted fashionable anti-americanism...
He mentioned Afghanistan, a subject which has become a point of personal annoyance: why has it become an article of faith in leftish circles that the rebuilding of Afghanistan is an unmitigated disaster? I keep seeing this meme repeated both in the mainstream media and in the blogosphere, without any real data to back it up - just the usual problems that you'd expect in a polace that was as messed up as Afghanistan was. Why has the fact that an oppressive theocratic state has not been magically transformed into Paramus, NJ in 18 months become an indictment of the Bush administration?
First, it's a fantasy that Norway, which isn't even an EU member, would adopt the Euro.
Now, on to his economics. He makes much of the U.S.'s debt. Okay, let's look at debt.
The U.S. debt as % of GDP (2002): 60.0%
The E.U. debt as % of GDP (2002): 62.5%
Now, the US's economy is in debt trouble, but the EU's is not?
Lads, the US$/EUR rate is not the national sperm count of the USA and shouldn't be confused with it. As far as government deficits are concerned, any (hypothetical, proverbial) pilot will tell you, it's much better to have the needle in the red and falling then in the green and rising (I have no real idea what actual pilots think about this piece of folk wisdom and suspect that they would disagree).
And in any case, the big problem for the US$ is the current account deficit, not the fiscal one. Which is a problem that could certainly be solved by a US$ depreciation. After all, what's the *point* of being a global hegemon if you don't use your status to inflate your debts away every now and then.
You've got an economy which is pretty close to deflation, and the opportunity to stimulate it by means of an inflation tax, the brunt of which would be borne by foreigners. What's not to like?
(I have not read Monbiot's column, because I don't).
Hey D^2 - It's Monbiot who thinks the exchange rate is the national sperm count. The gist of his column is that U.S. power can be confronted by the rise of the Euro.
Your point is spot on, though. It would make the debt much easier to pay (hence my comment about the "value of their U.S. holdings").
d2... lovely.. since when are deficits dropping in EUnuchland?? hahaha
and since debt/gdp is essentially the main thing, wouldn't you want the faster rising gdp?
oh right, i forgot, german gdp is rocketing ahead!! it will soon have china's 7% growth rate (ha.. german growth.. haha china not lying about a statistic! there's only 5000 sars cases in china.. and 5000 in hong kong.. dirty hong kongers!!!)
monbiot never seemed to be a loon... then somebody thre the hate america sewitch.. and he was screwed
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