How high can it go? $$

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by renormalised

Greg, it'll be bad enough that the Democrats have lost their backbone and are caving into business and financial interests, but if the Republicans get back in, the US is going to go downhill faster than a duck flying south for winter.

Interestingly, there is only 1 Republican Presidential candidate, Ron Paul, with the sense to admit: "America has to stop being the Police of the World. We have no place in saving and policing other countries when we can't even run our own properly. We need to stop fighting everyone else's wars for them."
Ron Paul.

"Our fighting men and women take an oath to protect America, defend our Constitution and defend our borders. They look at Ron Paul and see a leader who takes their oath seriously, and who will fight to ensure that we don't misrepresent that oath by sending them off to police the world, instead of defending our country."
Ron Paul's campaign chairman Jesse Benton.

Can you imagine the Gazillions they will save by NOT policing the world and stayed out of others wars! Approx $1 billion a day!!

Other Republicans do not follow Ron Pauls views.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

Interestingly, there is only 1 Republican Presidential candidate, Ron Paul, with the sense to admit: "America has to stop being the Police of the World. We have no place in saving and policing other countries when we can't even run our own properly. We need to stop fighting everyone else's wars for them."
Ron Paul.

"Our fighting men and women take an oath to protect America, defend our Constitution and defend our borders. They look at Ron Paul and see a leader who takes their oath seriously, and who will fight to ensure that we don't misrepresent that oath by sending them off to police the world, instead of defending our country."
Ron Paul's campaign chairman Jesse Benton.

Can you imagine the Gazillions they will save by NOT policing the world and stayed out of others wars! Approx $1 billion a day!!

Other Republicans do not follow Ron Pauls views.

They're spending $1.3 trillion to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus their "War on Terror". I was reading about how much they spend on air conditioning alone, in Afghanistan....$20 billion a year!!!!!!. The military-industrial and financial complex is making money hand over fist and destroying their own country, but hardly anyone is lifting a finger to stop it. Shows you how brainwashed and kicked to the ground the people are over there. The US is slowly heading to become an ultra-right wing fascist/capitalist state run by the military and the megacorporations (although it pretty much is anyway) in a totally overt way and no one seems to care. What they need is a revolution.

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Originally Posted by renormalised

...What they need is a revolution.

+1

But where is the party to unite the downtrodden masses and lead them to a glorious victory? That's the problem in the West - or at least a big part of it.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

+1

But where is the party to unite the downtrodden masses and lead them to a glorious victory? That's the problem in the West - or at least a big part of it.

It's got nothing to do with glorious victories or any of that jingoistic claptrap. And it's got nothing to do with parties....that's precisely what we don't want (political parties). What we need is for someone or a small group of like minded people to get the ball rolling. What we need is people who are willing to stand up and do what's right by everyone, not just a select few, or for themselves. That takes a lot of mature thinking and moral conscience. Plus the willingness to think for the whole, altruistically. That basically leaves out every politician, businessperson and a great many others. It also requires a very well developed, mature strength of character and vision. The really big problem for such a person/group is if their message is just going to fall of deaf ears. Given the way society is at present, that's probably going to be the case. The amount of opposition they'll face is going to be substantial and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if a few of them, or even a lot of them, end up face down in an alley somewhere with a bullet between their eyes. They will have to be smart enough to stay ahead of those that want to get rid of them.

The big problem with the West is that the society has been lulled into a state of torpidity and avarice by over 100 years of blind and mindless satiation. Driven by....guess who.........those that are in power and their sycophants. It's the old adage...keep a group/society fed to the eyeballs and rolling in the mud and they won't care what happens, just so long as they get what they want.

[AstralTraveller (David)]

My phrase 'glorious victory' was typed with a fair bit of tongue in cheek. As for political parties we see now, obviously they are useless - their role is to maintain the status quo. But what would you call a group of like-minded people operating in the socio-political domain except a party? Whatever you call this group (and let's not get bogged down in semantics) history shows that it's message will fall mostly on deaf ears most of the time. However when forces larger than this 'party' cause a great number of people to look for alternatives that message has to be there and has to be clearly presented. It's almost certain that this will happen during a crisis - depression and/or war - when social collapse is looming large. People will want solutions *now* and if the 'right' message is absent then it is quite likely that groups with the 'wrong' message (and there is enough of them in every country) will gain influence and power. It's happened before.

[gregbradley]

This is starting to get into a political debate which is not really what this site is about.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Back to the topic.

Greg I think it can go higher. Sure the US was able to recover from high levels of debt after the war but keep in mind that they manfactured just about everything then. They traded their way out of debt. Now they import more than they export, we are almost the same too, and that will lead to more national debt in the end.

If our rates go up again soon, be prepared to see another rise to around 1.15. Reason is our rates provide a nice advantage to overseas currency investors and that makes our currency shorter in supply and that lifts the value of our dollar. The RBA has been making noises about raising rates again because of inflationary pressures.

Forget the US they are spending money like a drunken sailors.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Back to the topic.

Greg I think it can go higher. Sure the US was able to recover from high levels of debt after the war but keep in mind that they manfactured just about everything then. They traded their way out of debt. Now they import more than they export, we are almost the same too, and that will lead to more national debt in the end.

If our rates go up again soon, be prepared to see another rise to around 1.15. Reason is our rates provide a nice advantage to overseas currency investors and that makes our currency shorter in supply and that lifts the value of our dollar. The RBA has been making noises about raising rates again because of inflationary pressures.

Forget the US they are spending money like drunken sailors.

I think the dollar will go as high as US$1.50 within the next 4-6 months, like some have said. And if the US economy goes like I think it will, then it will go even higher. I'd say the next "universal currency" will either be the Euro, if they can extricate themselves from following what the US has fostered for itself lately, or it will be the Chinese currency.

The next few days will be critical. If they can't raise enough votes in Congress to sort out their debt problems by the 2nd of Aug, and the Republicans scupper it, then they're in really serious trouble. Not only that, it will have knock on effects in many other economies as well. Europe itself is in pretty dire trouble and I don't think the people there will put up with it in the end. It won't just be Greece that'll have riots in the streets.

[gregbradley]

You may well be right and certainly the Aussie tends to trend for a long time in one direction and that currently is up.

I thought the latest talk was of a rate fall. Who knows. Bananas force CPI up so there is talk of rate rise, consumer sentiment is bottomed out then talk of a rate drop.

A rate drop by Christmas is in my opinon most likely (RBA always overdoes it in one direction too long, always) and when that firms up the dollar will fall.

It is high primarily because we have super high interest rates compared to the rest of the west. There's are low because their economies are stil cactus.

If the US does not agree on this debt thing though - yes, $1.50 definitely rises above the horizon.

Either way we are in a great position to get good gear for once at a discount - amazing.

You know the Ausie dollar was US47 cents not that long ago (well - 12 years ago or so).

Anyway all this conjecture and we all make up our own mind about it when making puchase decisions.

In fact all this is academic if we don't have the money to buy now anyway!!

You know the US is stil the world's largest manufacturer by a large margin. You probably thought it was China right?
It is not even close. All those super expensive jets etc.

Greg.

[DavidU (Dave)]

Apple has more cash than the US treasury.
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/...nc/?&hpt=hp_c2

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by DavidU

Apple has more cash than the US treasury.
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/...nc/?&hpt=hp_c2

Might sound funny, but it isn't. Not only that, $10 billion/day is absolutely insane. It's out of control and getting worse.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by renormalised

I think the dollar will go as high as US$1.50 within the next 4-6 months, like some have said. And if the US economy goes like I think it will, then it will go even higher. I'd say the next "universal currency" will either be the Euro, if they can extricate themselves from following what the US has fostered for itself lately, or it will be the Chinese currency.

The Chinese government has too much control over the Yuan for other countries to want it as a reserve currency.

The next few days will be critical. If they can't raise enough votes in Congress to sort out their debt problems by the 2nd of Aug, and the Republicans scupper it, then they're in really serious trouble. Not only that, it will have knock on effects in many other economies as well. Europe itself is in pretty dire trouble and I don't think the people there will put up with it in the end. It won't just be Greece that'll have riots in the streets.

I though I heard on ABC this morning they got just enough Republicans on side to get the bill through the House. That gives the Senate Monday to pass it.

Andrew

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

The Chinese government has too much control over the Yuan for other countries to want it as a reserve currency.

That'd be the only thing stopping it from becoming a reserve currency. But if the Chinese are smart, they'll free their currency up to allow it to possibly become a reserve currency. other than them or the Euro, we don't have too many choices.

Originally Posted by mithrandir

I though I heard on ABC this morning they got just enough Republicans on side to get the bill through the House. That gives the Senate Monday to pass it.

Andrew

They tried to get a possible plan through the house but the Senate will most likely scupper it because the Dem's run the senate. The plan, in any case, is just another Rep scam to keep things with their business mates in the status quo.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Well, after many of us have said there is a possibility of the A$ going as high as $1.50, the news is that it has now sunk back down to $1.36
Been falling since Friday.

The big U.S. dollar saving spend-up for us may be over.
Have to watch it carefully over the next few days.

Here is the latest: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/australian-dollar

[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

I NEED the AU$ to fall (so do our exporters)!!!!
I have some share options coming due and they're paid in US$
A 2cent drop would mean an extra 1.4K in my grubby little paws!

[Paul Haese]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

the news is that it has now sunk back down to $1.36
Been falling since Friday.

I am sure you mean $1.036 Ken. It has only been as high as $1.11. It would be lovely if it was $1.36 for some of us at least.

[icytailmark (Mark)]

well its down to almost below $1 now Just when i was gunna buy a Flea 3 camera. So annoyed.

[icytailmark (Mark)]

Breaking news Commonwealth and Westpac have cut their interest rates

[casstony]

Originally Posted by icytailmark

well its down to almost below $1 now Just when i was gunna buy a Flea 3 camera. So annoyed.

$1 is still a lot better than 60 cents. Whenever the politicians/bankers fail to prop up the world economy I think our currency will be a lot lower.

[TrevorW]

How much of this is contrived to strip $$$ off the value of our pensions