Thursday, October 4, 2007

The Unseen Currency War

WorldNetDaily posts a story about a lurking danger in the worldwide currency markets. The dollar has recently reached new lows against the Euro, prompting some concerns about U.S. financial stability. China, for example, is one of the biggest possessors of U.S. currency, and could cause considerable financial woe if it decided to dump U.S. dollars in large quantities. It would be the equivlant of China "detonating a thermonuclear weapon in the world's financial markets" and establishing a sort of Cold War in currency.

It doesn't stop there, though. Other nations that have large stakes in U.S. currency include Iran, Russia, and Venezuela. If you're paying attention to world events, you know that all three nations are more or less hostile toward the U.S. right now. Some believe it's a concerted effort to harm America's financial security, which would in turn affect America's influence and ability to defend itself.

If the dollar continues to fall in value, the risk is that other nations -- including China, Japan, or Saudi Arabia -- who have been funding America's budget deficits may stop. That would be catastrophic.

Historically, the dollar has been the world's sole reserve currency due to America's stability and leadership role in the world, but the Euro has gained consideration for the role lately, especially as it has higher value than the dollar.

What should you do? Call your reps and the White House and demand fiscal responsibility. Support a 2008 presidential candidate who pledges to balance the budget (something Bush has done a good job of in the past couple years), even to the point of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. The Republicans were swept into power in 1994 partly due to a pledge for fiscal responsibility - the Democrats were tax-and-spend, the Republicans were conservative. Since 2000, the Republicans have become almost as bad as the Democrats.

It's time to get back to what works.

There's my two cents.

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