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Oct 15, 2009 -- Weakening dollar drives up the price of gas
The weakening dollar is beginning to drive up the price of gas at the pump.
The U.S. dollar is quickly becoming the 98-pound weakling of the world. Our imports will continue to go up in price if it stays that way.
Take Honda, for example. They make 80 percent of their cars in the United States. So they're not hurt by the fact that the Japanese Yen is rising against the dollar. But other foreign car makers who don't manufacture in the United States will have to charge more for their cars or face the prospect of taking smaller profits to move their vehicles.
Then throw in the fact that our government is spending and printing money like crazy. Add this all together and that's why if you go to the gas pump a week from now and it's more than today, now you'll know why. It's all about the weakening dollar driving up the price of imports.
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After the sowjet collapse in 1989 we woke up 2 giants with India and China.Remember we are now competing globally with many new nations we were not used to compete 20yrs ago. Soon Commodity prices will go thrue the roof which will weaken the dollar further.Nations will abondon the dollar which is no longer a hedge against inflation.The new admin will exelerate the issue with printing more money which won't fix anything. Let the recession go its course which will stabilize the dollar in the long run and quit bailing people out making wrong choices.
So Ron Paul Was Right All Along?
I remember being a powerseller on Ebay years back, many of my customers were outside the US so I got use to comparing different currencies to ours and I always noticed how ours dominated others. The pound was always higher than the dollar but now a dollar barely gets you .61GBP. And wasn't the Euro struggling against the dollar not too long ago? That's almost as powerful as the pound at .67. We're only .03 away from the Canadian Dollar equaling us, and the Japanese Yen now has more strength than the dollar by 8.8. Australia will be passing us up soon!
Globalization and our ignorance toward it will destroy us, or should I say has? We need regular people in congress, not millionaires.
Politics?
"Our govt is spending and printing money like crazy".... Your verbage reveals your political stance. That's something I would expect of commentor but not from you, Clark. What's crazy is the situation that necessitated the drastic steps that had to be taken. Those who criticize the Obama for the fix he is trying to implement should blame themselves for voting in the last administration, twice.
Government Spending
History will likely show that the greatest enemies of America weren't the British, Japanese, Nazis, Taliban, etc. but were our own elected officials trying to maintain their power and the dumb masses [to borrow a phrase] that voted themselves wealth from the public treasury.
What we as a nation are doing to our future is criminal.
Oil
Too bad the dept of energy could not fix what they were designed to do - if everyones memory is good they will recal that the agency was developed in the 70's to move our country away from oil - how has that worked out? The agency costs billions of dollars a year and the overwhelming majority of us still use gas to run our cars everyday - that is government at its finest - not excusing the oil companies but we need to share the blame
gas prices
No the dollar isn't the reason gas prices are higher, its the greedy oil companies trying to get close to the BIGGEST PROFITS EVER BY ANY COMPANY they had last year. You know as well as I do that we have had surplus of oil due to falling demand over the last year but the prices were still artificially high at the pump. Now oil is heading back up (yes i admit oil prices are tied to the dollar) but prices at the pump are supposed to be supply and demand driven. Even with the refineries cranking back on production to keep prices up in the face of lower demand gas should have been under $2 for most of the summer and now that we are switching to the cheaper winter blends it should be going even lower...don't blame the weak dollar, blame the greedy oil companies! I believe they were the catalyst that pushed the failing economy over the edge with $4+ gas prices, and if they do it again, all the stimulus money that the Fed has been spending will be wasted and we will go back into recession....Huge oil company profits and high gas prices hurt everyone and ruin the local and national economy....the free spending and failing dollar hurts us in the global economy, but trade deposits are not felt in the pocket of the average worker as much as $4 a gallon gas.
Not to worry
Not to worry, the federal government can just dream up more ridiculous stimulus programs and send some more stimulus checks out. That should make most happy. We can worry about paying for it all later. And don't forget to reward especially those who made bad decisions and overextended themselves by extending that $8,000 home purchase rebate.
People wake up
Our wonderful federal gov't is having to borrow 60 cents for every dollar that they spend - and to some that is fine or necessary! There is never been a time when our country is so far in the hole, but every spending plan from DC calls for more and more spending. Even someone with elementary knowledge of finance would understand that this is a formula for disaster. Plus even in good time the gov't (state and DC) never address the issues of debt. It shocks me to read Clark listeners say that debt is good
basic economics for Nessy
When any entity spends more than it has, it runs a deficit. It either runs in the red, or, in this case, though money may not be printed, it is being electronically generated. The world knows this, recognizes that our cheap money is only getting cheaper and the only way to recoup a fraction of it is through inflation, punishing citizens for government recklessness.
You might score a semantic point, but you've also shown that you're clueless about economics. The road to recovery is through honest growth, not government veneer. So, yes, we must retract in order to get back to real growth.
OIL
I just go back from the middle east and if the American people dont know this, the Saudi's have +/- 80 oil tankers sitting in the Gulf with no where to go and no customers to buy the oil. Who is robbing whom ????????
So...
So your solution to a shrinking economy is to contract it even more. Great idea!
to Nessy
No country ever stopped "hitting a depression" by devaluing their currency, by getting into dept, by deliberately ruining what economic sense this engine of a country had. To stop the recession is to reduce the spending, to stop encouraging the lazy and ignorant, but they are doing exactly the opposite of the common sense.
stop it
Obama is spending money to pay off his union hackjobs while we all get the bill.
Clark Is Wrong, Again
Clark, you need to stop throwing around sound bites for ratings. The government is not spending and printing money like "crazy". They are spending money during a recession to keep it from hitting a depression. The fact that they don't turn around and pay it off during a boom time is the problem of the future and past but not now.
