[Sangetsu]

Any legislation written by Ron Paul must be taken with a grain of salt.

The reason that the dollar is in such a decline is because America is printing out money hand over fist in a rather bizarre strategy to "stabilize" the economy. It's a backwards kind of thinking which could only occur in Washington DC.

The government is giving out billions of dollars which it doesn't have to "help" individuals and businesses who are suffering as the result of the poor economy. The government is handing out these payments, but is still taxing as usual, so the money is coming in one door, and going out through another.

A lot of people are claiming that the world's economic problems demonstrate a failure of capitalism. This couldn't be further from the truth. It is the government's micromanagement of the American economy which led to the problems we are seeing now.

The problems we have with the sub-prime mortgage mess is the fault of the government, and not the banks. It was the government which forced the banks to conform to the "fair lending practices act" which required banks to give mortgages to people with marginal (i.e. "poor") incomes and credit.

Our "elected" leaders in Congress rule according to poll numbers. The first thing a politician does in the morning is read the day's poll numbers to find out where he stands. This happens much more in election seasons. If the economy is having problems, it's likely that a senator or congressman is going to see his numbers fall. In order to to keep their numbers up, they have to do what they can to keep the economy going.

The economy has natural cycles, it rises and falls like anything else. But when the economy falls, people worry, and they sometimes express their worries at the ballot box. The government decided to keep the economy growing by reducing interest rates, which allowed businesses and individuals to borrow more money at a lower cost. This approach worked for a number of years, and the economy grew steadily.

But, this growth was artificial. First, it prevented the natural up-and-down cycles from occurring. Second, it encouraged people and businesses to get themselves into debt. In short, it was a recipe for disaster. The economy was a house of cards, and a great deal of Americans had a large percentage of their worth invested in this house. Then, the inevitable happened, and this house of cards collapsed under it's own weight.

The recent $700-odd billion dollar "stimulus" package is just another payoff from Washington, a payoff to the taxpayers to prevent them from doing what they should: throwing the politicians out of office. The sad thing is that this payoff will probably work. How much do you want to bet that US Representative Barney Frank and US Senator Christopher Dodd will be reelected? These were the 2 men in charge of the House and Senate Banking and Finance Committees when the economy collapsed.

As most of may know, until now only a fraction of the promised stimulus money has been spent. The checks will start going out in 2010. Why then? There are people who need help now, aren't there? Of course there are, but 2010 is an election year, and the politicians will use stimulus dollars as a way of lubing up the voters before turning them around and bending them over.

But this isn't all there is behind the weakness to the dollar. $784 billion is peanuts to the US economy, even though that number exceeds the GDP for the majority of the world combined. The real weakness has been caused by the Federal Reserve, as it has "added liquidity" to the banking and financial industries by doling out guarantees totaling nearly $10 trillion dollars. This, my friends, is enough to pay for an Ivy League education for every man, woman, and child living in the United States, it is enough money to give every living person on earth nearly $4000 in cash.

It is because of the Federal Reserve's "money from air" policies that the dollar has declined so far, and the government will do nothing about it.

I'm still waiting for some "change" from the Obama administration, but I don't expect any. Spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is now higher than it was during the Bush administration, and continues to go up. Gitmo will not be closed at the time promised. Healthcare reform is a boondoggle, the government can't find it's behind with 2 hands and a flashlight, and somehow they think they have the expertise to regulate healthcare. We've already seen how wonderful the government is at handling our economy, if they do as good a job on healthcare we'll end up finding better medical treatment in Haiti.

Obama will campaign for Dodd 2010, and Dodd will be reelected (Barney Frank was reelected in 2008). But if the dollar continues to sink (God forbid), and is removed as the world-standard currency, Obama will not be reelected in 2012.

The Chinese and Japanese won't dare to drop their T-bills, secretly or otherwise. To do so would result in disaster for their economies. The weak dollar and strong yen is killing Japanese exports, and even making Chinese junk-goods more expensive. The British Pound and the Euro aren't doing so well against the yen either, it looks like I'm going to get a lot of good deals when I go home for the holidays this winter.