The plunging greenback threatens to cripple U.S. power. Why are the candidates ignoring this critical issue?
Comment: 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?
Comment: 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.
Comment: 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.
Comment: 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).
Comment: Maybe no HIllary and Obama supporters have weighed in on what their candidate will do to address the dollar problem because those candidates have failed to recognize it, much less address it (unlike Ron Paul.)
Comment: 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.
Comment: 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?
Comment: 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: 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!
Comment: 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.
Comment: 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
Comment: 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.
Comment: 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.
Comment: 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.
Comment: 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?
Comment: 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.
Comment: 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.
Comment: 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.
Comment: 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.
Comment: 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.
Comment: PS: Ron Paul doesn't just say he is going to change things. His record shows he WILL fix the problem. On Nov. 8th, 2007 Ron Paul was interviewed by CNBC and you will see that his campaign is the only one addressing the problems! Please take a few minutes to understand what Ron Paul stands for. If you don't like it, them that is fair. Take care! Here is the video from CNBC! http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mx2eWcBOE3o
Comment: WTF? Has this guy watched the debates? Where do you think Ron Paul is getting the support? From those who understand that the dollar has collapsed! What Mr. Hirsch means is that his pick for president is not talking about the currency. Here is Ron Paul at the CNBC debate. If you know Ron Paul because of the "media" take the time to listen to Ron Paul explain his positions. You will hear the others laughing at him, I guess they don't understand economy! http://youtube.com/watch?v=TgNLFtYoPAo
Comment: We are seeing the beginning of a long-overdue chastisement. We will be paying for the sinfulness of our nation, particularly as it concerns greed, materialism, and abortion.
But, sadly, the vast majority of Americans are either too secular to believe in such things or too obsessed with lust, entertainment, and money to even notice.
Comment: Ron Paul is the only candidate who has addressed this issue. He calls for returning to Constitutional government, reducing government to its aConstitutionally authorized functions, changing our belligerent foreign policy of undeclared wars around the globe, and returning to honest money - gold and silver, as the Constitution specifies.
Comment: Look around folks. Ron Paul has been discussing these issues for years. He is also the only candidate that has a means out of the dilemma. Hasn't anyone in the press been listiening?
Comment: Look around folks. Ron Paul has been discussing these issues for years. Can't anyone in the press hear him or do they choose not to tlisten.
Comment: ronpaul2008.com and you'll find your candidate concerned with the tanking dollar.
Comment: It's true that Bush is not like Hoover, who couldn't of stopped the train wreck of the Great Depression even if his politics were at the left of Roosevelt's. Bush's presidency however, bears alarming similarities Hardings and his administration's rampant corruption and cronyism. This added to an overblown economy with a stock market based in fantasy is quite likely the real cause of the depression.
Comment: With over 700 military installations(http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2003/basestructure2003.pdf) we spend an enormous amount of money to sustain "Pax Americana". Many are blissfully ignorant of the fact that we are over $9 TRILLION dollars in debt (http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/govt.htm) with almost $8 trillion of that since Reagan was president. If they are aware of that factoid they are woefully ignorant of what that will mean to their style of living if we do not correct the persistent overspending by BOTH political parties when the music stops and they don't have a chair.
There is one presidential candidate who is not ignorant of our situation AND is willing to DO something about it. Do you know who HE is?
Comment: One has to assume that the corporations that have been swilling at the public teat and the weathiest 2% who have stopped paying taxes have long ago hedged their monies into the international markets; it is the remaining few in the so-called middle class that are being flushed into the recession toilet! Long live George, the idiot prince of darkeness, wonder if he can fiddle?!
Comment: why doesnt the american public talk, read, or think about dollar value? because they are mesmerized, hypnotized, narcotized.
you want to know why the dollar is falling?
you want the TRUTH?
you cant HANDLE the TRUTH!!
wink
here is the truth, laid out plain and bare more than 5 years ago
http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/wpawuwpma/0203005.htm
ron paul has a glimmer of the truth on the subject. learn more here on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_reserve_banking#Libertarian_viewpoint
Comment: why doesnt the american public talk, read, or think about dollar value? because they are mesmerized, hypnotized, narcotized.
you want to know why the dollar is falling?
you want the TRUTH?
you cant HANDLE the TRUTH!!
wink
here is the truth, laid out plain and bare more than 5 years ago
http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/wpawuwpma/0203005.htm
ron paul has a glimmer of the truth on the subject. learn more here on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_reserve_banking#Libertarian_viewpoint
Comment: There is alot of insanity in the world. We are playing Russian Roulette by saying the Persian Gulf, Chinese's, Russians, won't cash in our dollars. What I find ironic is the Republicans and conservative's still belive in smaller government, no regulation on the economy. All the potiential Republican canidate's are still preching the same voodoo ecomonic's of the Reagan years. Some think if Iraq didn't happen, the economy wouldn't be the way it is now. Although, they are going in the direction of point at Bush. None have the courage to blame the current administration. or say that this war is wrong. Even without the war, the lower the taxes, selling off the government, no real ecomonic policy or regulation but the "free hand" of greed, and the stock market would have led us where we are today.
Comment: Ron Paul has been beating the drum on monetary policy and the dollar for years. Get off the MSM teet and join real Americans... support the one candidate that believes that the constitution, not the Wall St./corporate lobby, is the law of the land.
Honestly, when the author here (and so many other MSM drones) find the time to criticize the Fed and monetary policy during a presidential campaign season and can't recognize Ron Paul as the one candidate that actually understands this issue... well, it diminishes the credibility of the author. It's hard to dismiss Paul as a crank when he predicted - and fought - the very crisis the author describes here. Where's Billary's economic/dollar policy? Exactly...
Comment: Bush has been an unmitigated disaster to our core economy. He created a monstorously huge deficit and then declared that he cut a problem of his own creation in half. LOL. Only a Republican could believe that that is progress. Who will pay for Bush's $9 Trillion debt? Our grandchildren! It is a shame that we are passing on our problems to them. As for the recession that Bush inherited, the recession occurred in March 2001 (when Bush was president). They unspoken issue here is that the economy is booming for two reasons, the massive deficit spending by this administration and the massive war spending in Iraq. Whoever is left to deal with the mess will be confronted with a recession.
Comment: I have to laugh when every decade or so I have to read about how America is in economic decline and everybody is going to eat our lunch! Bush inherited an economy moving into recession due to the dot com crash, and then on top of that the 9/11 attacks put the economy into a free fall. His actions to cut taxes, combined with the policies of the Fed to lower interest rates worked wonders and we have since had a booming economy creating millions of new jobs with low inflation and strong GDPgrowth. Every sector of the economy has done well, and income, after inflation, is now in excess of 4%. As he promised to do, Bush has more than halfed our budget deficit to about 1.5%, and it is much smaller than the deficits run by most of the European countries of which Hirsh is so enamored. The decrease in tha value of the dollar , which has Hirsh so worried, also has many upsides as well, one of which is to shrink our trade deficit, which in turn will lead to a strengthing dollar. The dollar, like all other aspects of the economy moves in cycles. The day will come when we are all complaining that the dollar is too strong. All I can say is that Herbert Hoover could only have dreamed of residing over an economy as good as the one we have had the past 7 years or so. I think tha most important point that Hirsh makes about immigration to the U.S. is his only accurate comment. People from all over the world want to come to America, because there is no other country in the world that creates economic opportunity and freedom as America does, and as long as we keep attracting the best and the brightest and the world's risk takers, we will continue to be the world's economic super power. If we were the basket case that Hirsh seems to believe, nobody would want to come here and be paid in U.S. dollars. So Micheal Hirsh get a life, and pray that we don't elect a Democrat President, who will raise taxes and increase spending, for those actions will quickly remind all Americans what a truely recessionary economy really looks and feels like.
Comment: Clearly the author has never heard of Ron Paul, the only candidate who has made the declining state of the US dollar a central part of every stump speech since January. Note to Newsweek: there are more presidential candidates than Rudy, Hillary and Obama
Comment: Clearly the author has never heard of Ron Paul. He has spoken of the danger of the dollar's decline in virtually every stump speech he has given since January. Note to Newsweek - there is more to presidential politics than Rudy, Hillary and Obama.
Comment: Newsweek and Stiglitz never mention that a war was declar ed on America on 9/11. To fight a war is more than costly, it is ruinous. We have the examples of WW1 and WW2. This is the reason for the ecomomic troubles, which, surely, are not greater than Europe's. But Newsweek and Stiglitz never utter a word about it. The reason - they are damn leftists. They hate America and want it destroyed.
Comment: "Newsweek and Stiglitz never mention that a war was declar ed on America on 9/11."
No one declared war on us. We were attacked by terrorists, a non-state entity. But this administration and the right wing talking heads would have you believe otherwise -- sure, we're at war, so we can justify spending and undermining the Bill of Rights. How many presidents did it take to run up a $9 trillion dollar debt? Bush and his Republican congress have spent more borrowec money than all the 42 previous presidents combined. Who is going to pay for this? When in American history have we cut taxes during a time of war? Never. We have always raised taxes during wartime. And as for the declining value of the dollar, Bush does not have a clue what this means.
Comment: Mike is right. The U.S. will regain its diplomatic footing starting next year -- all the presidential candidates of both parties grasp that Bush's bellicosity has damaged America's ability to influence issues it cares about. But the U.S. economy rests entirely on the purchase of U.S. debt by countries like China that as Mike describes is already fed up with the tumbling value of its dollar investments, and is starting to balance its portfolio with Euros. The U.S. has a reckoning coming, and must attack this economic erosion.
Steve LeVine, author
The Oil and the Glory (Random House)
http://www.oilandglory.com
Comment: such destructiveness,utter chaotic spending,dragging america to the ground this mr.bush did.has he realised what he had done?well how could he?he's that macho dumb jerk that epitomised the republican way of thinking.i hate you republicans,everytime a republican is in office america goes awry that's the legacy that always be accompanied,i would never ever vote for republican
Comment: Teddy Roosevelt was a very progressive Republican and went after the monopolies. Dwight Eisenhower was a good Republican. He pushed for our highway system. Imagine our economy without our highways. George Bush and his ilk are only Republican in name, and they definitely are not concervative by any stretch of the imagination.
Comment: IT is unfortunate that your hatred for all things American, has clouded your vision. You are obviously one of those elitest educated idiots, that probably has never approached the average hardworking American citizen. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that, with a low dollar, our products become more affordable all over the world, thus, perhaps creating more decent paying jobs for Americans, besides service industry jobs, that seem to only benefit the wealthy. Look what a low currency rate is doing for China! Also, you underestimate the power of the American people in general. We have a tendency to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and go on with life, overcoming the adversity that faces us. You obviously underestimate the American Work Ethic.. Forget about those books you read and get out among the working class Americans. They may surprise you!
Comment: Being an elitist has never been a bad thing in my book, or a reason to call somebody an idiot. And I am a working class American. Not unless you are George Bush. Who didn't graduate from Ivy League schools by merit any more than he won elections.
"...with a low dollar, our products become more affordable all over the world, thus perhaps, creating more decent jobs for Americans...look at what a low currency rate is doing for China!"
There's a bit of a problem with that...the American industrial base has been effectively holed out.
Toyota has become numero uno while American car companies are swirling around the drain...what's left is Wall Street (money making as opposed to wealth making) by-pass surgery and Vegas. What products are we gonna sell with the weak dollar, hu? What that rate is doing for China it does it because the rate is a tool of an economic model that has turned it into the factory of the world. We ain't that no more. Go and try find ANY product with the label "Made in the USA". Good luck. We don't even make the IPod for Pete's sake! And Hersheys has announced they're moving the production of the pit marshmallows to China...
The "American Work Ethic" can do nothing against a system stacked against the creation of real jobs, having another million of burger flippers or waitresses ain't gonna do it as far as maintaining, merely maintaining the standart of living. With pardon to burger flippers and waitresses that bust their butts doing their jobs. But washing each other's laundry doesn't add up to a prosperous economy.
Having said that, I believe that the biggest factory in the world has been installed in Woyming of all places,
it's a Kool-Aide factory though.
Comment: I couldn't have answered this post any better. By the way, isn't Cheney from Wyoming? Oh oh! I suspect a kool-aide conspiracy.
Comment: Ron Paul has been campaigning on the "Weak Dollar" all along. His non-interventionist stance also supports the concerns of this article.
Comment: ron paul will NEVER be elected president. Get over it.
Comment: Yeah - just keep telling yourself when Congressman Paul raises more money than any other candidate 4th quarter, places in Iowa, wins New Hampshire, wins Nevada ....
Comment: Michael Hirsch is being dishonest in saying why are Presidential candidates ignoring the "Weak Dollar." No other candidate has spoken as much or as eloquently about the state of our weak, fiat dollar than Dr. Ron Paul. And it makes me sick to the bone when media pundits first castigate and dub candidate as "radical, fringe, and long-shot," only to bark about their ideas when its a little too late. This is why big media shouldn't be telling us who is fringe and mainstream. Let the people see their ideas, while you do your job and report it...while the American people decide what's "loony" and what's mainstream. Seems to me, Hirsch should have listened to Paul a little earlier, no?
Comment: Hirsch didn't mention Ron Paul because he doesn't stand a chance to win. I agree with you, though. The media has an agenda. It's not like a concerted conspiracy, I don't think, but the media is owned by major corporations. Their bottom line is profit, not disceminating accurate information. Independent media outlets still do, however. One answer to this would be to publicly finance campaigns and, therefore, even the playing field. As for our falling dollar, our growing national debt, and our chonic defecit spending, I see trouble on the rise." Historically, our situation resembles 1928. I hope I'm wrong.
Comment: Michael Hirsch is being dishonest in saying why are Presidential candidates ignoring the "Weak Dollar." No other candidate has spoken as much or as eloquently about the state of our weak, fiat dollar than Dr. Ron Paul. And it makes me sick to the bone when media pundits first castigate and dub candidate as "radical, fringe, and long-shot," only to bark about their ideas when its a little too late. This is why big media shouldn't be telling us who is fringe and mainstream. Let the people see their ideas, while you do your job and report it...while the American people decide what's "loony" and what's mainstream. Seems to me, Hirsch should have listened to Paul a little earlier, no?
Comment: Someone please tell Ron Paul to quit posting here!
Comment: Every supertanker of Oil or Container ship of good shipped to us speeds the decline and deepens the debtor status. Until we replace the energy model and employ Americans, as opposed to management of by and for the shareholder, and a quarterly income, we will collapse. We must reset our priorities. China has gamed their currency. Bush has offended the Russians because He and good old Dick Cheney don't have a cut in Russian oil. We want to stick missiles into their neighborhood they consider a threat.
I doubt it is possible to find a greater disconnect with what is best from America than this administration.
Comment: Ditto!
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