06-12-2008, 08:10 PM
U.S. dollar faces threats to its reign
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0604/p15s01-wmgn.html
The US has been spending hundreds of billions on the Iraq war, suffered massive trade deficits for many years ($708 billion in 2007), and now is paying about $1.2 billion a day for imported oil. Moreover, the dollar has been hugely devalued against the euro (the currency of 15 nations in the European Union), the British pound, and some other currencies.
In effect, the dominance of the dollar has enabled the US to live beyond its real means for decades. Charles de Gaulle, founder of France's fifth republic, complained in the 1960s about the "exorbitant privilege" the dollar gave the US. (It turns out that his finance minister, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, first used this famous phrase usually attributed to de Gaulle.) Loss of the privilege could lower US living standards a little.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0604/p15s01-wmgn.html
The US has been spending hundreds of billions on the Iraq war, suffered massive trade deficits for many years ($708 billion in 2007), and now is paying about $1.2 billion a day for imported oil. Moreover, the dollar has been hugely devalued against the euro (the currency of 15 nations in the European Union), the British pound, and some other currencies.
In effect, the dominance of the dollar has enabled the US to live beyond its real means for decades. Charles de Gaulle, founder of France's fifth republic, complained in the 1960s about the "exorbitant privilege" the dollar gave the US. (It turns out that his finance minister, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, first used this famous phrase usually attributed to de Gaulle.) Loss of the privilege could lower US living standards a little.