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POLITICS: IMF Warns of "Traumatic Situation" Re US Dollar

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posted on Nov, 19 2004 @ 01:03 PM
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Just ahead of the G20 Summit, the International Monetary Fund has issued a warning that the US may be facing a "traumatic situation" with respect to the sharp fall in the US dollar coupled with record debt and deficits. It warns that waiting for the market to correct the situation could be disastrous and that the US government needs to act.
 



news.bbc.co.uk
In an interview with the IMF's in-house magazine, Rodrigo Rato said the US could not rely on market forces alone to avoid a "traumatic situation".

Mr Rato's interview appeared on the eve of the G20 meeting of major countries' finance ministers in Frankfurt, at which the weakness of the dollar and the spiralling US deficits are likely to take centre stage.

The finance ministers of Argentina, France, Japan, Russia and South Korea will not be present at the meeting because of domestic engagements, it emerged on Friday afternoon.

Mr Rato acknowledged that the reduction of the current account deficit - the gap between money coming in and going out of the US - was everybody's business.

But imbalances like that could not be fixed solely by the market, he insisted. That "could be much more costly and risky".

The US needed to take action itself, not least because there was a limit to how much other countries could continue to fill their coffers with dollars - the mechanism which allows both the current account deficit and the massive public budget deficit.

"The question is whether the build-up is sustainable, and there's growing evidence that (it) is very big and the markets are asking for a change of policy," Mr Rato said.


Please visit the link provided for the complete story.


Well... when the IMF steps into the spotlight with respect to the finances of a country the situation is getting serious. We usually hear the IMF warn third world countries about their finances not the US. Even Alan Greenspan agrees that the situation needs to be addressed.

The Republicans who have had control of the Senate as well as the House for the last four years are STILL trying to blame the Democrats?


Watch for massive cuts in social spending and hidden tax increases in the near future. An don't forget the Republican desire to privatize Social Security.

Hold on to your wallets; things are going to get hairy.


Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
POLITICS: US: Debt to hit $8.2 trillion on Monday

[edit on 19-11-2004 by Banshee]



posted on Nov, 19 2004 @ 01:12 PM
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Another member has just started a thread about the Bush Administration's refusal to take action:

Dollar Melts and Bush takes no action

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posted on Nov, 19 2004 @ 03:38 PM
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I find it interesting that five of the countries are not sending their finance ministers due to "other" engagements (crisis management at home?).

It will also be interesting to see what happens to the markets next week when all this new debt is floated into the markets. I wonder who will be buying?

.



posted on Nov, 19 2004 @ 03:42 PM
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I got a felling the military budget is going to be slashed big time.



posted on Nov, 19 2004 @ 07:57 PM
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please read, the creature from jekyll island. you will find it most interesting about our federal reserve.



posted on Nov, 19 2004 @ 09:13 PM
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Hope the 59,000,000 million supposed voters are happy with their choice for President. 59,000,000 million people need to learn to deny ignorance!



posted on Nov, 19 2004 @ 09:21 PM
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I wonder how the pro-Bush cult will respond to this...



posted on Nov, 19 2004 @ 11:39 PM
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....and to think Congress votes to raise the debt ceiling so they can put it off a little longer - ha!



posted on Nov, 20 2004 @ 12:19 AM
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this is the way we wash our clothes, wash our clothes, wash our clothes
everybody sing along!

all the 'debunkers' of conspiracy theory can now watch the familiar pattern of a decent into hell, as your dollar falls and your imaginary 'power' which you believe the world of banking is, and your populace begins to BEG for martial law as the infrastructure of the country fails. depression is just another way 'they' manipulate the masses. don't listen to the 'accountants' and 'financial professionals' about the system. they are like rats in a maze, and can't see outside the institutional box.
(check your bank presidents and CEO's name and address. find out where they shop and eat, where they hang out, what they're buying, etc. if 'we' ever decide to cut the head off this snake, we'll find it extremely soft and vunerable. 'you gotta grab it by the back of the neck' -crocodile hunter).



posted on Nov, 20 2004 @ 12:38 AM
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1) The U.S. is not an island. As it goes, so goes the world.

2) If you don't believe me, ask all the foreign investors who are heavy into U.S investments.

3) There are a lot of things happening behind the scenes, and a lot of hands in the cookie jar. Pinning something like this on a single person is asinine.

4) It's not over yet.



posted on Nov, 20 2004 @ 12:55 AM
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Originally posted by Gools
I find it interesting that five of the countries are not sending their finance ministers due to "other" engagements (crisis management at home?).

It will also be interesting to see what happens to the markets next week when all this new debt is floated into the markets. I wonder who will be buying?

.


Argentina, France, Japan, Russia and South Korea will not be present at the meeting this plus China is the coalition Putin spoke of a week or so ago. Russia has a great deal of gold. China and Japan have a huge amount of Treasury Bonds from the U.S.
When things go South they often go fast and without much warning. Stay on your toes.
Polar Bear



posted on Nov, 20 2004 @ 01:10 AM
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Wow, because of the dollar sinking we will have to spend our money on American made products. The foreign products will be too expensive. All those countries that outsourced to foreign lands will be at risk for price increases. Who knows were they will end up. Don't you just love the free market. Maybe some day the other world powers will stand up to the terrorists instead of taking bribes. I say buy American and bring back our jobs. What a concept.



posted on Nov, 20 2004 @ 06:00 AM
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Just a stupid question......just how does the IMF intervene in a country's economy when it gets out of control, and well, what would propmt that action?


Oh, by the way.......wow, the dollar is sinking, oil prices will rise because of this making the cost of doing business here higher....which could mean less jobs....

and well, we've shipped alot of our production overseas, what if they decide not to come back, even without the low value of the dolllar, does that mean the price of those produced goods raise and thus become unaffordable to us and we go without them......



posted on Nov, 20 2004 @ 06:05 AM
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Originally posted by Majic
1) The U.S. is not an island. As it goes, so goes the world.

2) If you don't believe me, ask all the foreign investors who are heavy into U.S investments.

3) There are a lot of things happening behind the scenes, and a lot of hands in the cookie jar. Pinning something like this on a single person is asinine.

4) It's not over yet.


I agree with you on 1 to a point. The world will recover, will the USA? It survived one depression but somthing tells me the next one is gonna make the 30s seem like the 90s. As for #2 To foreign investors like me the falling greenback presents an opportunity to make a quick turnover, and maybe get on the bottom floor of a manufacturing resurgance. Number 3 well alot of the blame for the Debt situation CAN be laid on the current administration. Remember Clinton left the White House with a RECORD SURPLUS. Now its a record defecit. As for the Trade Gap, a lower dollar can help allievate that. BTW As a canadian I am buying more and more goods from the USA instead of my local dealers(ie EBAY.com vs. .ca). Can buy more for less. 4 your dam right its not over



posted on Nov, 20 2004 @ 06:07 AM
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Originally posted by dawnstar
Just a stupid question......just how does the IMF intervene in a country's economy when it gets out of control, and well, what would propmt that action?


They can intervene in any number of ways. One way is diplomacy, another is buying greenbacks to stem the fall of the US dollar vs the Euro/Yen/Cnd. They can invest directly into the US economy through the Stock Market. Theres alot of things the world can do.



posted on Nov, 20 2004 @ 09:04 AM
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Well I am torn on this subject, on the one hand "fair" trade as promulgated in the last 12 years or so has seemed to mean "give us your jobs" instead of your poducts for the U.S. and I don't feel too darn sorry for those countries that have undercut the U.S. manufacturing base with poverty wage workers for the most part.

The problem of trade deficit and debt deficit somewhat go hand in hand as far as currency value is concerned. I have the opinion that the U.S. at this point should not give a damn to reduce its debt deficit in order to prop up a trade deficit that is not in its long term interest and that "propping" up of trade is the goal of european and asian trade partners at this point so they can maintain their imbalance ad-infintum without wage and standard of living parity.

On the otherhand there is the effect on all economies if dollar value goes to low and causes depression in foreign markets to the extent that our production remains unavailable to those in other countries. Secondly when our economy speeds up in response to corrections in world markets our debt cannot be so large as to be unpayable during good times such as the "Reagan" economy experienced during the 1990's when Clinton rode the wave.

I am in agreement with the "float" as long as its not overdone and the result is a more balanced trade equity on the world market. At that point the debt deficit can be or should have been addressed.

I am no economic major and am only expressing my opinion as I have interpreted various news accounts both political and economic and feel the Bush administration is making a point to the rest of the world in respect to economic balance - especially US jobs. In the not to distant past other administrations would have jumped right in and propped the dollar artificially and claimed diplomatic and economic success but would never have told the American people that it was at their expense in regards to well paying employment.

The rub here is that this correction could easily go to far. The Bush administration must tread here with extreme caution.



posted on Nov, 20 2004 @ 09:07 AM
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``The bottom line is that Snow has put no barrier to dollar weakness -- the green light is still there to sell the dollar, said Mitul Kotecha, head of currency strategy in London at Calyon, the investment-banking unit of Credit Agricole SA.

The dollar's drop against the yen accelerated when it reached 105, a level at which some traders had placed pre-set orders to sell the U.S. currency, according to Neil Jones, head of currency sales at BNP Paribas SA in London.

Paying Attention

Further so-called stop-loss levels lie at 104.30, Jones said. Traders sometimes place such orders to limit losses in case their bets go the wrong way.

etc........


Goldman, which last week lowered its forecasts for the U.S. currency, said its trading ``action this day'' is to sell the dollar against the yen. In a report to clients, the bank advised closing the trade should the dollar close above 107.50 yen.

Measured by the Federal Reserve's Trade-Weighted Major Currency Dollar Index, the dollar has shed 22 percent since Bush took office in January 2001. Under Bill Clinton's last two Treasury secretaries, Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, the index advanced about 24 percent. etc.......
quote.bloomberg.com...

It is spooky if computers world wide over the weekend were to trigger stop loss trades you could theoretacally wake up in a full blown depression Monday. Happy Thanksgiving


[edit on 20-11-2004 by Polar Bear]



posted on Nov, 20 2004 @ 09:36 AM
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I was going to eat today but maybe Id be better investing my last 10 bucks into that hidden swiss Bush Retirement Account! Damn I should have invested it into john ashcrofts I heard his just matured and is ready for spending!

E-I-E-I-O



posted on Nov, 22 2004 @ 08:13 AM
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US President George W. Bush failed to convince Chinese leader Hu Jintao to break the 10-year-old yuan peg to the dollar, often cited as an aid in Beijing's massive trade surplus and blamed for the worsening US deficit.

Other Asian leaders complained to Bush during their one-on-one talks about the falling dollar, which is eroding the value of massive greenback reserves held by the region's central banks as well as the region's export competitiveness, officials said.
etc.....

Led by China and Japan, Asia makes up a key proportion of 40 percent of marketable US Treasury debt, which the region's central banks have bought as part of their dollar-purchases to contain a slide in their currencies against the greenback.

One source at the APEC summit speculated that the United States might be "talking the dollar down to teach the Chinese a lesson for not unpegging the yuan."etc...

Fred Bergsten, a top American economist, forecasts a financial quagmire in the United States unless Bush takes radical steps to tackle the deficit problem.

"I think the odds of a hard landing are a lot more likely in the United States," Bergsten said. "It can happen anytime."

sg.news.yahoo.com...

Naw keep your ten bucks.



posted on Nov, 22 2004 @ 08:38 AM
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Originally posted by Softwareman1
Wow, because of the dollar sinking we will have to spend our money on American made products. The foreign products will be too expensive. All those countries that outsourced to foreign lands will be at risk for price increases. Who knows were they will end up. Don't you just love the free market. Maybe some day the other world powers will stand up to the terrorists instead of taking bribes. I say buy American and bring back our jobs. What a concept.



This is EXACTLY right. We'll have a much lower dollar but after some pain we'll have more jobs here in the U.S.

It's China (who has no real middle-class) who will suffer the most from a collapsed dollar, which is why they are propping up our currency at the moment.

The Euro is going to have to take the role of world currency soon and that means�.outsourced jobs to the U.S. and Russia!! Hurray! See how you like it in Europe when it becomes too expensive to manufacture products in your own countries.

Actually India, China and Russia all have no real middle class to speak of and thus no consumer market to power their industrial growth. Once the consumer engine in America sputters out (which is what is occurring now) then who picks up the slack?

BTW - Property rights are at their heart of their problems but their political arrangements are not set up for easy solutions.

I�m sick of seeing jobs go overseas because China�s and Japan�s citizens savings are being used to prop up our over-priced dollar. (Study this and you�ll see how it works�yes, Japan and China are using savings from their citizens to buy our bonds / debt).

We need to bring back those jobs to OUR country and re-establish our manufacturing base. We need to remember that America is fully capable of being totally self-sufficient when we put our minds to it.

I�m not going to lie and say it�s going to be easy for us. But I�m of the feeling that we need this. It�s been too easy for America for too long. We�ve lost a lot of core values due to the fact we haven�t been through any serious hardship for a while. We�re fighting amongst ourselves too much.

A good 5-year period of having to depend on each other and our families will do us some good and flush out some pretty bad crap from our system.

Oh, and this is not a Bush issue. It is because we have a fraudulent Federal Reserve in charge of our currency instead of an elected government. Say yes to the Gold Standard!




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