On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 20:51:29 -0000, "Nebulous"
<Nebulous@pigtail.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

>
>"MacHamish" <russj41@concentric.net> wrote in message
>news:me1kq0tba25j5dm32fe07celscmt8k3krg@4ax.com...
>> On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 08:32:28 -0000, "Nebulous"
>> <Nebulous@pigtail.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >"MacHamish" <russj41@concentric.net> wrote in message
>> >news:s6vhq09mvvisdldbbnckcjhfhbes7r5t13@4ax.com...
>> >> On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 20:34:45 -0000, "Nebulous"
>> >> <Nebulous@pigtail.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> >So what role did the international community play in the current American
>> >deficit and weak dollar- other than being a bit too willing to lend you
>> >money?
>>
>> Some indefinable amount of it is due to the international community
>leaving
>> it up the US to shoulder the very costly burden of defense alone.  More
>> importantly, those nations, particularly in Asia, that artificially
>> supported the dollar in order to continue a long habit of exploiting the
>US
>> market for the sake of their own prosperity have contributed to
>exacerbating
>> the current state of affairs.
>
>We can and have argued about what defence is necessary until the cows come
>home.
>
>Point of order though, didn't you see my caveat above. So how did these
>Asian countries support the dollar?  All countries have done is lend you
>money long after it was prudent to do so. They were coaxed, cajoled and
>demanded to do this  by your government. So now they were doing it to
>exploit you?

Do you have a cite for that, Neb?  If they were coaxed, cajoled, and
demanded to do this, I rather imagine it was because of the large trade
imbalances their exports to the US market were causing while they put up
barriers to entry to protect their own market from penetration by US goods.
I distinctly remember this being a serious issue with Japan a few years ago.
In any case, we're talking apples and oranges here.  You seem to be talking
about them buying US bonds, which is indeed a loan.  The US government has
never defaulted on its bond obligations.  I'm talking about direct
intervention in the currency markets, where, for example, the Bank of Japan
buys a large quantity of US dollars in order to keep the dollar high against
the Yen, thereby maintaining their price advantage over domestic producers.
A lot of that goes on. 


>> >The free market is very unforgiving you know MacHamish!
>>
>> Yes indeed, and manipulated markets are even less forgiving.
>>
>
>Manipulated so that the pain would not be felt until after an election?

Your cynicism probably isn't unfounded.  After all, they're politicians.

MacHamish M$(D??(Br