The Casino is not Croquet

"Dear Pundita:
I read your Faustian Bargain post. I strongly disagree with the way you portrayed Bush. Sure he's a member of the ruling class but if he's so smart about money matters, why isn't his so-called "strong dollar" policy working?
[Signed]
Pro DOLLAR not euro!"

Dear PDNE:
Read the following excerpts four times to understand what Bush means when he says "strong dollar policy." George Soros was the only financial advisor to the Clinton administration who could find the craps table, let alone the front door to The Casino. This means that for eight years, US monetary policy was run out of a post box in Belgium. These days, the head of the European Central Bank is whining that Bush's croquet stick is weighted with lead. Awwwwwww........

" . . .there's also an impression [among Euro analysts] that [a falling dollar]. . .is forcing the central banks in places like the European region and in Japan to consider an easier monetary policy," Reid said. "[The U.S. administration has been critical of] America's partner countries, [saying that they] aren't doing enough to stimulate their growth. So one's tempted to think that perhaps they see a weaker U.S. dollar as putting pressure on the European Central Bank either not to raise interest rates any time soon, or even to think about cutting interest rates."

"That pressure is coming as Europe itself is concerned about the dollar's weakness, and the accompanying strength of the euro. The worry is that a strong euro will harm economic growth by making European goods more expensive abroad. The head of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, said earlier in November that the euro's rise was "brutal and not welcome."

"Hans Guenter Redeker, a foreign exchange strategist at BNP Paribas, said Europe has to play its part, too. "We have not to forget that the current-account deficit of the U.S. had been created while Europe was using the U.S. markets for their exports quite intensively," Redeker said. "We can't only blame the U.S. for its imbalance. We have to as well think about why Europe hasn't improved its own domestic demand conditions, so that it would become less dependent on exports."

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