In the Realm of the Dying Dollar

The pundits will tell you that a falling dollar is good, it makes our goods cheaper for foreign countries to buy. Thus the idea is that is will revinvigorate US business. The truth is that any meaningful reinvigoration will come with a price tag of paying significantly more dollars for goods and services. Anyone else notice prices rising in the supermarkets lately?

Ron Paul's economic policies are far different from the present administration. They just might work. As the euro rises with respect to the dollar, my son-in-law in Germany is less and less eager to move here and bring my granddaughter. That does not make me happy.

I agree that Ron Paul has far different policies than the present administration. His might work to make America strong again. My son-in-law in Germany is getting less and less likely to come and bring my granddaughter here, as the Euro rises aganist the dollar. This does not make me happy.

It does not make sense when dollar is being dumped to buy the currencies of welfare states such as Canada and European countries. But once dollar falls so much, manufacturing and services becomes less expensive for true capitalists. You can see this in increased hotel bookings in NY City to increases foreign Car manufactuers here. A slighly devalued dollar is good for economy , becuase , it no longer beneficial to outsource work ( Manufactureing and services ) to other countries, when it can be accomplised here at less price. Once spending and Corporate tax percentage are reduced, America will revive to greater heights. We need another Ronald Reagan to accomplish this. Right now it looks like only Candidate that come close is Ron Paul ( either by first name or principles).

The reason HIllary and Obama supporters are not weighing in on what those candidate will do to address the dollar problem could be because they don't know due to those candidates failing to even recognize, much less address the dollar decline issue.

Wonder why you didn't mention presidential candidate Ron Paul has warned about the falling dollar due to foreign aid/activity overextension. He also has reiterated similar solutions enumerated by David Walker like cutting back on foreign aid. Oh, except for one distinction, even RP believes we should have at least a skeletal defense.

I love the related links at the top of this article: George Bush, China, Osama bin Laden. Are these meant to be the greatest threats to America ranked in order of severity?

BTW: Where are the Hillary and Obama supporters weighing in on what their candidate will do to address the dollar problem? Are they being frozen out by some RP sleeper cell on the Newsweek IT team?

I listen to Mr. Hirsch on radio weekly....unfortunately, the candidates do not. One of these candidates needs to listen to a voice of reason.

Comment: If incomming administration does not introduce new tax reforms, and initiatives to revitalize the dollar, the value of it will not only continue to plummet, but will eventually sink so low that it will threaten America's position as the Supreme World Superpower. Right know what we are feeling are the initial shockwaves of the horrors that are yet to come---any astute historian can tell you what happened to ROME when the governing politicians became increasingly less interested in the welfare of the empire and more interested in their own agendas. I hope the presidential hopefuls realize some of the points discussed in this article, because if not, America is heading into some serious financial problems!

I'm surprised you didn't mention presidential candidate Ron Paul in this article: as someone who has been warning the rest of us about the falling dollar and the impact it will have on the "empire", his call for change now seems "prescient" in the words of the New York Sun.

As a Canadian living just across the border in the Niagara region we here are very aware that the shrinking U.S. dollar is having a real effect on the Tourism around Niagara Falls from the American side as well as the dramatic increase in cross-border shopping by Canadians. The sudden increase in value of the Can$ vs. the U.S. has also pushed prices down here as our merchants adjust to the lower costs to them as well as the potential for lost business as Canadians increasingly use the internet to purchase the same goods for lower prices.It is interesting as well that the Canadian government continues to generat large supluses as it continues to pay down its accumulated debt!R.H. Hawkes, St. Catharines, Ontario
R.H. Hawkes, St.Catharines, Ontario

Having just returned from a visit to Brazil, I was made very aware of the effect of the dying dollar on Americans who live in other countries but whose income is in dollary. The last time I visited there the conversion rate 2.23 rias to the dollary; this time 1.75. That meant an almost 25% decrease in buying power in a little over a year. Americans will soon find foreign goods, even those from China expensive and will be forced to buy American products which today are more expensive. Day to day life will become more expensive as items produced elsewhere such as energy continue to rise in price.

For the Site Admininistrator:

As you are experiencing, blogswarming is becoming an increasingly vexing problem for sites like yours. The solution is fairly trivial. Capture the IP address and HTTP_REFERRER for each visitor on entry to the site, then compare the IP address of commenters to retrieve the website that referred the user to your website, screening this information against a list of known websites that encourage blogswarming. Deny those coming from offending sites the ability to comment. Simple.

I notice that here, as well as at a number of other news sites, there seems to be a coterie of individuals championing the Presidential aspirations of Ron Paul by repeatedly adding stentorian accolades to Mr. Paul. Difficult to determine if they are sincere or if they instead are attempting to give Mr. Paul a bad name for having exceptionally irritating and clueless supporters.

The dollar decline is a mixed blessing. While it makes American exports more attractive and lowers the price of American products for local consumption in comparison with imported competitors, it does drive pressure for higher interest rates, inflation, and correspondingly slower business activity. Whether this will result in chickens coming home to roost or a chicken in every pot is anyone's guess.

OK with the important exception of Ron Paul, the candidates are not discussing the weak dollar. Also missing is any discussion of the budget deficit -including the costs of Iraq - and that that deficit is expected to grow and grow. Campaigns are all about happy talk. Straight-shooting loses elections. Ron Paul is losing badly. Is anyone surprised?

FYI

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955 titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. This bill is one of the most blatant attacks against the Constitution yet and actually defines thought crimes as homegrown terrorism. If passed into law, it will also establish a commission and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so called thought criminals. Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and uses vague language to define homegrown terrorism. Amazingly, 404 of our elected representatives from both the Democrat and Republican parties voted in favor of this bill. There is little doubt that this bill is specifically targeting the growing patriot community that is demanding the restoration of the Constitution.
First let???s take a look at the definitions of violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism as defined in Section 899A of the bill.

The definition of violent radicalization uses vague language to define this term of promoting any belief system that the government considers to be an extremist agenda. Since the bill doesn???t specifically define what an extremist belief system is, it is entirely up to the interpretation of the government. Considering how much the government has done to destroy the Constitution they could even define Ron Paul supporters as promoting an extremist belief system. Literally, the government according to this definition can define whatever they want as an extremist belief system. Essentially they have defined violent radicalization as thought crime.

This is typical spin. Sales up 8.5 % over last year. Let me tell you the truth...
True inflation, accounting for the rise in prices, if it was calculated the way is was 15 yrs ago is running at 16%. The sales rise over last year is explained this way. 7.5% of the population is to broke to buy. The 8.5% rise account for half of the actual inflation rate due to half of the people actually buying yesterday... The country is in a Recession.. Your best buy is Silver... If you have extra money buy gold.. not an ETF actual gold.. If you want any more hard stats ask. Think, if the dollar alone has dropped 12% since last thanksgiving wouldn???t you expect to see a 12% rise in sales?

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071125/D8T4EQR00.html

Don???t believe what you here or read from the Main Stream Media. You didn???t here that Ron Paul won the Last Zogby Poll in all categories except Name Recognition did you? You also didn???t hear that of 43 Straw Polls he won 1st place in 22, 2nd in 6 and 3rd in 7. Additionally, there is no more news about making fund raising history on 16 Nov by raising 4.3 million in one day... He will make history again on 16 Dec by exceeding the 4.3 by at least 2 million. Its time to return this country to its Constitutional roots. I did not grow up in a democracy, I grew up in a Republic.

This is the correct way to say the Pledge:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and
to the Republic for which it stands.
One Nation, Under God, Indivisible with LIBERTY and JUSTICE for all.

This is typical spin. Sales up 8.5 % over last year. Let me tell you the truth...
True inflation, accounting for the rise in prices, if it was calculated the way is was 15 yrs ago is running at 16%. The sales rise over last year is explained this way. 7.5% of the population is to broke to buy. The 8.5% rise account for half of the actual inflation rate due to half of the people actually buying yesterday... The country is in a Recession.. Your best buy is Silver... If you have extra money buy gold.. not an ETF actual gold.. If you want any more hard stats ask. Think, if the dollar alone has dropped 12% since last thanksgiving wouldn???t you expect to see a 12% rise in sales?

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071125/D8T4EQR00.html

Don???t believe what you here or read from the Main Stream Media. You didn???t here that Ron Paul won the Last Zogby Poll in all categories except Name Recognition did you? You also didn???t hear that of 43 Straw Polls he won 1st place in 22, 2nd in 6 and 3rd in 7. Additionally, there is no more news about making fund raising history on 16 Nov by raising 4.3 million in one day... He will make history again on 16 Dec by exceeding the 4.3 by at least 2 million. Its time to return this country to its Constitutional roots. I did not grow up in a democracy, I grew up in a Republic.

This is the correct way to say the Pledge:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and
to the Republic for which it stands.
One Nation, Under God, Indivisible with LIBERTY and JUSTICE for all.

Mr Hirsch apparently chooses to ignore Dr.Paul as a candidate....Is this due to ignorance or by design ? I believe the mainstream media does it's best to ignore and ridicule his message (kooky, quirky, etc). Did anyone ever think it would become "kooky" to believe in the Constitution ? ? ? ? The media seems afraid that given truthful exposure, Paul's message would be quite popular. That would be bad for the "business as usual" boys and girls in government.

Mr. Hirsch,
With all due respect, Dr. Ron Paul addresses this issue consistently, which is demonstrative of the fact that he is the only candidate worthy of the office.