Saturday, Oct 25, 2008
the United States has used the U.S. dollar's hegemony to plunder the world's wealth,
reuters: U.S. has plundered world wealth with dollar: China paper
BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States has plundered global wealth by exploiting the dollar's dominance, and the world urgently needs other currencies to take its place, a leading Chinese state newspaper said on Friday.
The front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily said that Asian and European countries should banish the U.S. dollar from their direct trade relations for a start, relying only on their own currencies.
Posted by malct @ 06:54 PM (855 views) Add Comment
23 Comments
- If you do not have an admin password leave the password field blank.
- If you would like to request a password allowing you to add comments and blog news articles without needing each one approved manually, send an e-mail to the webmaster.
- Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.
- Please note that any viewpoints published here as comments are user's views and not the views of HousePriceCrash.co.uk.
- Please adhere to the Guidelines
1. plato said...
Yes been reading again.......... I can't keep up with you guys........ my head's spinning and don't understand a lot........hence better to read than speak........... good stuff though.
This is very interestng. I get the impression Europe and Asia are attempting to join economic forces to match the USA and change the accepted system to favour them. Will it happen? Is this going to cause tantrums?
2. Fred56 said...
They don't like it if you sell your oil in anything but dollars. Wasn't that nice Mr Hussein selling his oil in Euro. Bad precedent there.
3. enuii said...
Couldn't agree more, it's something that is becoming more blatantly obvious to more and more people as years pass. The dollar would be a basket case if it were not for it's position as the default world currency.
4. renting2 said...
So, what are we saying? That we need an asset/commodity based single world currency? Or perhaps 2 or 3 major currencies with equal weighting on world markets?
5. planning4acrash said...
It is the tri-lateral new world order. Dollar has been printed and used to buy real assets. To have three similar predatory currencies is an unthinkable tyranny. Recipe for Orwell's tri polar warfare, socialist dictatorship world in the novel, 1984.
6. braindeed said...
Count me out of that one. For all their faults, give me Uncle Sam anyday of the week. We owe them our lives, Adolf did come close.They are, at heart,the most remarkable country. They are the big cheeses for sure, and are effectively the worlds rulers - I just don't think my life would be better if ruled by someone in say Bejing, Or Rhiad, Tehran, Moscow, or even Tokyo.
I just hope that the USA can get itself sorted, I'm happy under their umbrella......but mabey others think differently?
7. Fjcruiser said...
Because the $ has been the world reserve currency instead of gold since the war, it has allowed the US to fund their extravagant lifestyle for years, exporting their debt to countries willing to take it on,particularly China. Until Europe wakes up and think as one, I cannot see how the $ can loose its status of world currency reserve.
Despite the horrific situation in the US, the greenback keep appreciating.
8. drewster said...
Why has taken so long for the Chinese to realise this? When times were good, nobody in China wanted to rock the boat. Now that things are turning sour (even in China where house prices are plummeting) they're looking for someone to blame. Let's just hope it doesn't descend into war.
9. planning4acrash said...
Adolfwas funded by Wall Street.
10. Stevie Dee said...
The Shekel would be a good alternative. Now it has joined the other 16 currencies traded internationally. A niche product for a niche time.
11. icarus said...
renting 2 @3 - we have such a currency - it's called the US $. It dominates commodity exchanges and the US has used this position to exploit the rest of world. If any other currency had been used the way the US $ has been used the country/region would have disappeared down the toilet long ago. As it is the $ is now the worst currency - except for all the others.
enuii @3 - the dollar (or the US) wouldn't (couldn't) have behaved as it has and brought the world to this position if it were not the default world currency.
braindeed @5 - p4ac is right. Evidence here http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/index.html
12. quiet guy said...
"Dollar has been printed and used to buy real assets."
Most of the debt was built up on the hosuing bubble which in turn fuelled consumer spending - hardly what I would call real assets. I do not wish to excuse America for its mistakes but China has long marked its currency at unrealistically low levels to keep their exports industries going. China has to take some of the blame.
13. icarus said...
drewster - it's the view of a particular Chinese professor but I'm sure it's widely shared. Many Chinese think their country was conned into buying US Treasury and Fannie/Freddie bonds by the US when the latter knew it was going to trash the dollar and reduce the value of those bonds.
The Chinese have known for some time that they were stuck with these bonds and are in a position where they'd be cutting of the nose to spite the face if they took any action that would cause a deterioration in US credit quality or the value of the $. The Chinese central bank generates its currency by printing or by borrowing through issuing bonds in the home market. Its forex reserves are leveraged using domestic liabilities and if dollar assets lose value or cannot be easily accessed China must still service those liabilities.
In some ways China has more interest in maintaining the value of the dollar than the US has and it doesn't like being in that position.
14. mark wadsworth said...
Yeah right.
The Chinese appear to be waking up to the belated realisation that they have been right royally conned. They have built up reserves of over a trillion dollars in US government and quasi-government debt (plus another trillion in other currencies) and now want their money back.
But on the other hand, they peg their own currency to the dollar - if allowed to float, it would be a lot higher. But that would, from the point of view of China, devalue their foreign currency reserves. So that's a bit awkward as well.
So, like I'm saying, they have been conned. Plus we get to keep the flat screen TVs and the little plastic toys from McDonald's.
15. gardeniadotnet said...
@briandead
I just don't think my life would be better if ruled by someone in say Bejing, Or Rhiad, Tehran, Moscow, or even Tokyo.
I just hope that the USA can get itself sorted, I'm happy under their umbrella......but mabey others think differently?
I think differently.
Here's a thought - why don't we, as individuals, rule ourselves?
16. icarus said...
There's a bit more to the dollar peg than facilitating exports from China and maintaining the value of China's dollar reserves. There's also leverage involved. China (as a holder of foreign reserves) is in a similar position to a leveraged financial institution holding vulnerable assets. Leveraged banks that mark to maturity or to model (or beg for bailouts) are afraid of asset deterioration for the same reason that China bends over backwards to preserve the value of its dollar holdings.- the safety of its capital is impaired and the deleveraging threat looms.
17. malct said...
5. braindeed said...
Count me out of that one. For all their faults, give me Uncle Sam anyday of the week. We owe them our lives, Adolf did come close
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
braindeed - are you aware that it is an historical fact that Wall Street and the B of E funded Hitler?
18. icarus said...
malct - see posts 7 & 8.
19. malct said...
thanks icarus/p4ac - consider that as further confirmation of your posts.
I came in late and did a quick scan, got as far as braindeed at 5
and went into top gear for a few seconds before retiring for the night!
20. malct said...
braindeed, see also Montague Norman and BIS - Hansard
21. Sulavaca said...
"Count me out of that one. For all their faults, give me Uncle Sam anyday of the week. We owe them our lives, Adolf did come close."
Well the IIWW wouldn't have happened in the first place were it not for American gold and the Federal Reserve, so don't over rate them too much please.
22. braindeed said...
Now, about USA....how can I put this? As people who (typically today, and certainly in recent history) share the 'race' of the Americans, we have been on the winning side.
It's a cruel truth, but our financial hegemony has been based on the fact that others have suffered. I was indicating that, if an other racial group had held the whip hand, then all of our lives would have been poorer. Confusion and Shinto philosophy regards western values as inherently substandard to their own for instance. (Burma railway etc)
And why are ‘markets’ never allowed to assert themselves in the oil business?...because it would impinge on our ‘freedom’ – freedom to exploit the Arab resource. I would certainly be worse off, as an infidel.
It's not easy to ponder these truisms, and I take no joy in the realisation of same but.
GET YOUR HEADS ROUND THIS – the world is a cruel place, and without our military/economic advantages, WE would have been the third world, and I think that we would have been treated worse by others, than we have treated them.
And as for ‘peace on earth’, that’s a child like fairy tail – let’s hope there is a heaven, and that we may be forgiven our trespasses - in the meantime we can only live the best lfe we can, in humility, and in the knowledge that Westerners have lived a blessed, but not guilt free lives
23. icarus said...
braindeed - you remind me of Brando's line in 'On the Waterfront' : 'Do it to him before he does it to you'.