1) I just checked XE.com and as of today, August 22, 2007 at 12:12pm, 1 US dollar is equal to 1.06 Canadian dollars. The USD is still weaker than the CAD. That's bad. Of course, "authorities" will say a weak USD will encourage foreign investment in America, but that ignores the part where it discourages our own investment in other countries AND the fact that it will discourage other countries from selling to us since they'd have to price their products so low as for us to be able to afford it. Of course, we're so stupid here, we think prices haven't gone up very much--but they've gone up a lot if you consider how much weaker the dollar is compared to even a couple years ago.
2) AP.org reported, in an August 22, 2007 article at Biz.Yahoo.com (http://urltea.com/1ag0), that:
Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. plans to shut down most of its business to survive the troubles in the home lending industry, the company said Wednesday.
Accredited Home Lenders said it will cut its work force to 1,000 people -- from 2,600 at the end of June -- and close 65 branches. The company will immediately stop accepting applications for home loans in the U.S., though it will honor the loans it has already committed to finance.
Maybe it's just this one company that is suffering, or maybe it's just this one company that is a symptom of an ailing economy.
And remember just two more things:
1) Just because unemployment is down doesn't mean that employment is up. It just means that people's unemployment benefits have run out and they've stopped claiming them.
2) Just because job growth is up, doesn't mean they're good jobs or well-paying jobs.
You make a good point about a weak dollar keeping Americans from being able to invest in other countries. And having a weak dollar as a lure to foreign investment isn't something to be proud of. A weak currency is why foreign interests invest in countries like Mexico and China (well, maybe not China so much anymore).
ReplyDelete"You make a good point.."
ReplyDeleteI do? SWEET!
Just writing that down... on August 22, 2007 ThePete made a good point.
^_^
But yeah, China is growing stronger and stronger while we get weaker. And one of the things that bugs me most about the weak dollar is that I can't afford to travel abroad. Well, not that I could if the USD was worth more, but now I can afford it even less. But then, it seems like the plan here just might be to keep us trapped in our current states/locations.