US Currency forex value

[Limey]

Iran's president calling the trading currency of worldwide oil (the US Dollar) "a worthless piece of paper" at the end of the OPEC summit may have been a bit of sabre rattling, but at the same time, it is also a well times kick in the balls from a man that is often barely coherent over his ridiculous anti semitic and anti west rhetoric so we have to doubt the use of cunning wit (it hasn't been present for retorts).

The US dollar is ridiculously low against everything this last four years or so, what is it to Europeans now, 81 euro cents? - The Canadian dollar jokes are all reversed and I haven't heard a single tables turned joke from them.

I only hope a regime change turns this shitty command around, it didn't really work out that well in the UK when they outed the Tories for a decade.

I hope that public services and benefits/welfare don't bleed the country dry further than it has been for 8 years, (though corporate sector companies involving Mr Cheney et al are doing just great) It's a shame manufacturing is saying bye bye though.

Story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7101050.stm

[booyalab]

I don't want to come off as impudent (I'm nicer when I'm tired) but I just realized why your posts are so draining to read.


Iran's president calling the trading currency of worldwide oil (the US Dollar) "a worthless piece of paper" at the end of the OPEC summit may have been a bit of sabre rattling, but at the same time, it is also a well times kick in the balls from a man that is often barely coherent over his ridiculous anti semitic and anti west rhetoric so we have to doubt the use of cunning wit (it hasn't been present for retorts).
this could easily be broken up into more than one sentence.

[Limey]

I don't want to come off as impudent (I'm nicer when I'm tired) but I just realized why your posts are so draining to read.

this could easily be broken up into more than one sentence.

I've heard from people before, that I make run-on sentences.
I just attribute it to having a large buffer and a keen sense for not losing track of the beginning of the subject matter/sentence (I also tend to put explaining parentheses in the middle of sentences to try to help the reader understand where I'm coming from - (it's sometimes a subjective place)) and make the assumption that other people, (since this is a like minded place) do the same extroverted thought process/communication style, or could at least come on board easily without simply reading the words themselves at face value like a concrete J would do to the abstract N in extroverted thought.

Thank you for your input. I hope you aren't as annoyingly trivial and surface dwelling in real life as your online persona seems to be.
<single nod>

[outmywindow]

I just attribute it to having a large buffer and a keen sense for not losing track of the beginning of the subject matter/sentence (I also tend to put explaining parentheses in the middle of sentences to try to help the reader understand where I'm coming from - (it's sometimes a subjective place)) and make the assumption that other people, (since this is a like minded place) do the same extroverted thought process/communication style, or could at least come on board easily without simply reading the words themselves at face value like a concrete J would do to the abstract N in extroverted thought.

You worked hard on that, didn't you?

And yeah, the weak dollar is rather worrisome.

[Limey]

You worked hard on that, didn't you?

And yeah, the weak dollar is rather worrisome.

I really didn't - I actually had a shorter response that was more toilet humor, but I petted the troll instead.

[Karl]

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hasn't actually said anything antisemetic. There's no reason to try to discredit him just because he's better looking than 95&#37; of the people on this forum.

Unless you're one of those people who thinks that everyone who opposes Israel is antisemetic.

It does look like our economy might be screwed. There's no telling what'll happen, but I'm glad I'll (hopefully) be alive to see what happens. None of the canidates have actually said how they're planning to fix this, though, but then it's not in style to actually say your solution to the problems. Canidates just talk about the problems and people assume they have a solution.

[Lateralus]

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hasn't actually said anything antisemetic.
Calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map" isn't antisemitic?

[kuranes]

I've heard from people before, that I make run-on sentences.
I just attribute it to having a large buffer and a keen sense for not losing track of the beginning of the subject matter/sentence

I had no trouble whatsoever understanding and following along with this. I grew up reading Poe and Bulwer-Lytton though. ( Yes, I am aware of the BL contest. )

Sidecar - Raymond Roussel was probably the author to make the most extensive use of parenthetical thought. An early progenitor of OULIPO style. http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?t=4206&highlight=OULIPO

Back on topic - some say that the latest Iraq war itself was begun in large part because Saddam encouraged the same thing as the Iranian leader is doing.

[C.J.Woolf]

I hope that public services and benefits/welfare corruption and the war in Iraq don't bleed the country dry further than it has been for 8 years...
Corrected. The Clinton administration had a balanced budget with no fewer public services.

[Karl]

Calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map" isn't antisemitic?

I believe he used a metaphor that's being translated that way, and the translation isn't entirely innaccurate, but my understanding of what he said isn't that violent.

He does think that Israel has no basis as a political state, and should not exist. Is that anti-semetic? Is simply opposing the political goals of a group of Jews antisemetic?

[rhinosaur]

Corrected. The Clinton administration had a balanced budget with no fewer public services.

I agree. The cost of the war is massive in comparison to anything else, and no one is doing anything about it.

[Lateralus]

I believe he used a metaphor that's being translated that way, and the translation isn't entirely innaccurate, but my understanding of what he said isn't that violent.
Oh, the translation excuse. I've heard this one before, yet no one bothers to present a "correct" translation.

[Karl]

Oh, the translation excuse. I've heard this one before, yet no one bothers to present a "correct" translation.

I can if you like, although I thought if you were interested you would take a few minutes and look into it yourself. I mean, I don't know a word of Arabic, so I'm only going to be repeating what I've heard from other sources.

I've read that he was quoting Khomeini... here's Khomeini:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khomeini

My understanding is that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad quoted Khomeini in saying "the occupation regime over Jerusalem should vanish from the page of time."

[Karl]

Here's something I'm finding on another site... I don't know how accurate or innaccurate it is as I don't know Arabic.

Sorry that I misremembered the exact phrase Ahmadinejad had used. He made an analogy to Khomeini's determination and success in getting rid of the Shah's government, which Khomeini had said "must go" (az bain bayad berad). Then Ahmadinejad defined Zionism not as an Arabi-Israeli national struggle but as a Western plot to divide the world of Islam with Israel as the pivot of this plan.

The phrase he then used as I read it is "The Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem (een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods) must [vanish from] from the page of time (bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad)."

Ahmadinejad was not making a threat, he was quoting a saying of Khomeini and urging that pro-Palestinian activists in Iran not give up hope-- that the occupation of Jerusalem was no more a continued inevitability than had been the hegemony of the Shah's government.

Whatever this quotation from a decades-old speech of Khomeini may have meant, Ahmadinejad did not say that "Israel must be wiped off the map" with the implication that phrase has of Nazi-style extermination of a people. He said that the occupation regime over Jerusalem must be erased from the page of time.

Again, Ariel Sharon erased the occupation regime over Gaza from the page of time.

I should again underline that I personally despise everything Ahmadinejad stands for, not to mention the odious Khomeini, who had personal friends of mine killed so thoroughly that we have never recovered their bodies. Nor do I agree that the Israelis have no legitimate claim on any part of Jerusalem. And, I am not exactly a pacifist but have a strong preference for peaceful social activism over violence, so needless to say I condemn the sort of terror attacks against innocent civilians (including Arab Israelis) that we saw last week. I have not seen any credible evidence, however, that such attacks are the doing of Ahmadinejad, and in my view they are mainly the result of the expropriation and displacement of the long-suffering Palestinian people.

It is not realistic for Americans to call for Iran to talk directly to the Israeli government (though in the 1980s the Khomeinists did a lot of business with Israel) when the US government won't talk directly to the Iranians about most bilateral issues. In fact, an American willingness to engage in direct talks might well pave the way to an eventual settlement of these outstanding issues.

cheers

Juan Cole

from http://www.juancole.com/2006/05/hitchens-hacker-and-hitchens.html

But I do think "wipe off the map" is a very western idiom, so it'd be strange if they had the same one.

[Limey]

Well, we have a couple of guys on the forum that speak Arabic - we can probably resolve this once and for all if the guy was being literal or metaphorical, though I imagine that a world leader should even use destructive metaphors since they are almost certainly to be construed as thinky veiled attacks.

[Karl]

Well, we have a couple of guys on the forum that speak Arabic - we can probably resolve this once and for all if the guy was being literal or metaphorical, though I imagine that a world leader should even use destructive metaphors since they are almost certainly to be construed as thinky veiled attacks.

I'm with you that he should probably be more careful, but at the same time, when you grow up hearing something, it's very easy to accidently use them, espicially when you're mind is on what you're saying and not how you're saying it.

I would love it if we could hear from someone who knows Arabic, although I'll hardly consider it "once and for all" until I'm familiar with Arabic, which might never happen.

[Lateralus]

You also have to consider that Arabic varies considerably across the Middle East. From what I've been told, Arabic varies more than English between the US and England.

[rawr]

Calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map" isn't antisemitic?

You're mixing up anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Israel should not be a state in any way shape or form and the justification for making Israel a state, like the Zionist organizations memorandum to the 1919 Paris peace conference, is some of the most racist, insane garbage I've ever read in my life.

[Limey]

What a minute - don't they speak Farsi in Persia/Iran - not Arabic.
dunno - feeling too lazy/P to look it up...

[garak]

Yeah, in Iran they speak Farsi (Persian).

[Lateralus]

Yeah, in Iran they speak Farsi (Persian).
They do, but it's possible, if he was quoting Khomeini, that he was using Arabic since Muslims view Arabic as their "official language".

[Karl]

I honestly don't know what language he said it in.

[Ferrus]

Farsi. That is used for non-religious purposes, although since the Islamic revolution they have preferred the use of Arabic loan words of traditional Persian words, in distinction to the linguistically nationalistic monarchy that preceeded it.

[Canuck]

Regardless of whether or not they trade oil in US dollars, it's real cost has still exploded over the last 5 years.

As for the dollar itself - take it as a plus, not a negative. A strong dollar (and limp-wristed politicians) killed your manufacturing base while it enabled massive consumption of goods from elsewhere - like Canada. Now the tables are turned and the gluttonous pigs that we are, we're organizing convoys of tour buses to take shoppers across the border to the land of cheap stuff. My heart swells with pride at such unbridled consumption.

George Soros is on record as saying he would push the US dollar to half of it's value out of contempt for Bush. I'm not sure old Soros actually had the means and mind to pull it off, but it's happening. The Chinese are quietly liquidating their US $ holdings and calling their loans having spent the last 6 years financing Bush and Co's Middle Eastern Expedition. Single largest holder of US treasury bills is? That's right - the Chinese. Awesome. I've been suggesting for years that folks get out of the US dollar, stop focusing on the US market and start conducting business in something more stable like the Euro but I'm a fuckin' nobody so it doesn't matter.

From my own perspective, as long as there is volatility in the currency market, I'm a happy guy.

[Canuck]

Is simply opposing the political goals of a group of Jews antisemetic?
Seems that way. There are a group of Jews who side with that crazy Iranian and even attended his holocaust shindig. They firmly believe that to create the state of Israel was in direct disobedience of God and therefore it should not exist. I spent some time reading on their website - interesting stuff.

[Hustler]

Here are a few solutions for you if you fear the weak dollar:

VGTSX
FXE
GLD

These are all excellent hedges against the dollar. If you draw your salary in US dollars, then any of these is a good idea. The first is an index fund that invests in an array of large-cap international companies, all of whom (generally) increase in relative value when the dollar goes down. The second is an ETF that essentially invests in the Euro. The third is an ETF that buys gold. So, instead of just worrying about the falling dollar, do something to protect yourself by reducing your overall exposure to the dollar. All that said, I do believe the dollar will be on the rise again in 2008, it being an election year, so be prepared for the flip side of a hedge, which means you don't realize the full gains when things turn around.

If you voted for George W. Bush, it's your fault. Just letting you know.

[Karl]

Seems that way. There are a group of Jews who side with that crazy Iranian and even attended his holocaust shindig. They firmly believe that to create the state of Israel was in direct disobedience of God and therefore it should not exist. I spent some time reading on their website - interesting stuff.

My undestanding is that most "traditional" religious jews, and quite a few more liberal jews, jews feel like Zionism is taking the spirituality out of the Jewish identity... which is probably true. In fact, many Rabbis were vocally against the creation of Israel.

But I'm not one to say the religious community should dictate the beliefs...

[Ferrus]

RGeorge Soros is on record as saying he would push the US dollar to half of it's value out of contempt for Bush. I'm not sure old Soros actually had the means and mind to pull it off
If the banks will support him, he's capable of a lot. In this country he was able, almost single handedly, to force the British government to leave the European Exchange Rate mechanism - both the Thatcher and the Major governments approved of a high pound for industrial efficiency purposes - and the resultant fallout (c.f. Black Wednesday) was enough to cost them the next election. He's a powerful man.
In fact, many Rabbis were vocally against the creation of Israel.
Orthodox Jews, prior to the events of the Holocaust were generally opposed to the creation of Israel. After all Zionism had many socialists in the movement, one of the reasons the USSR was sympathetic till it became evident they were staunch US allies, and a great many non-religious Jews. After 1945 their numbers dropped dramatically, but there is still a hardcore of ultra-Orthodox Jews very much against the state.

[Karl]

Orthodox Jews, prior to the events of the Holocaust were generally opposed to the creation of Israel. After all Zionism had many socialists in the movement, one of the reasons the USSR was sympathetic till it became evident they were staunch US allies, and a great many non-religious Jews. After 1945 their numbers dropped dramatically, but there is still a hardcore of ultra-Orthodox Jews very much against the state.

I'm under the impression that even after the holocaust, a lot of orthodox jews still didn't like the zionist movement. I seen some videos where they basically say the west found the jews that did want Isreal and put them on camera and made it look one sided. Maybe they're extremists even for an orthodox though? I didn't really get to find out about that.

[Anonymous]

Here are a few solutions for you if you fear the weak dollar:

VGTSX
FXE
GLD

These are all excellent hedges against the dollar. If you draw your salary in US dollars, then any of these is a good idea. The first is an index fund that invests in an array of large-cap international companies, all of whom (generally) increase in relative value when the dollar goes down. The second is an ETF that essentially invests in the Euro. The third is an ETF that buys gold. So, instead of just worrying about the falling dollar, do something to protect yourself by reducing your overall exposure to the dollar. All that said, I do believe the dollar will be on the rise again in 2008, it being an election year, so be prepared for the flip side of a hedge, which means you don't realize the full gains when things turn around.

If you voted for George W. Bush, it's your fault. Just letting you know.

Hmm, thanks, I'd been looking for something like this. GLD does seem to be falling right now, but so are most of the precious metal stocks from what I've seen. Any idea if this is something temporary, or does it look like it's going to keep falling?

[Limey]

Here are a few solutions for you if you fear the weak dollar:

VGTSX
FXE
GLD

These are all excellent hedges against the dollar. If you draw your salary in US dollars, then any of these is a good idea. The first is an index fund that invests in an array of large-cap international companies, all of whom (generally) increase in relative value when the dollar goes down. The second is an ETF that essentially invests in the Euro. The third is an ETF that buys gold. So, instead of just worrying about the falling dollar, do something to protect yourself by reducing your overall exposure to the dollar. All that said, I do believe the dollar will be on the rise again in 2008, it being an election year, so be prepared for the flip side of a hedge, which means you don't realize the full gains when things turn around.

If you voted for George W. Bush, it's your fault. Just letting you know.

The Euro?
That's only marginally better than the dollar by dumb (GWB) luck of the Euro-centric red tape makers in Brussels.
My money goes to China and India, then maybe Latin America if they ever get their shit together (Chavez notwithstanding).

[Hustler]

The Euro?
That's only marginally better than the dollar by dumb (GWB) luck of the Euro-centric red tape makers in Brussels.
My money goes to China and India, then maybe Latin America if they ever get their shit together (Chavez notwithstanding).

If you're looking for a hedge, you generally want to avoid volatility. Chinese or Indian currency, while showing good signs of growth and development, are still a wild ride compared to the Euro. If you are okay with that, knock yourself out. It will still be largely uncorrelated/anti-correlated to the strength of the dollar, which is what you want. Generally speaking, all currency moves are dumb luck, just like any currency picks made by an untrained amateur such as you or me are going to rely on dumb luck to be successful. A hedge, however, is far simpler. To reduce your exposure to the fluctuations of the dollar, you simply move some of your net worth into international currency, stocks, or into gold (or the like).

[Night]

If you're looking for a hedge, you generally want to avoid volatility. Chinese or Indian currency, while showing good signs of growth and development, are still a wild ride compared to the Euro. If you are okay with that, knock yourself out. It will still be largely uncorrelated/anti-correlated to the strength of the dollar, which is what you want. Generally speaking, all currency moves are dumb luck, just like any currency picks made by an untrained amateur such as you or me are going to rely on dumb luck to be successful. A hedge, however, is far simpler. To reduce your exposure to the fluctuations of the dollar, you simply move some of your net worth into international currency, stocks, or into gold (or the like).

This is excellent advice.

[Limey]

If you're looking for a hedge, you generally want to avoid volatility. Chinese or Indian currency, while showing good signs of growth and development, are still a wild ride compared to the Euro. If you are okay with that, knock yourself out. It will still be largely uncorrelated/anti-correlated to the strength of the dollar, which is what you want. Generally speaking, all currency moves are dumb luck, just like any currency picks made by an untrained amateur such as you or me are going to rely on dumb luck to be successful. A hedge, however, is far simpler. To reduce your exposure to the fluctuations of the dollar, you simply move some of your net worth into international currency, stocks, or into gold (or the like).

The best hedge of all (IMHO) is fuel supply/demand hedging - the likes of which I stumbled across reading Southwest Airlines' Wikipedia entry (of all places)
Turns out that Southwest are so far hedged into their fuel supply (just under 100%) that there may come a time soon where it's cheaper for them to ground planes, pay customers redemption tickets and sell the fuel on the apron.

I have all of my money on Telecoms, wireless ventures, and foreign growth. Even the mainstream portfolios like T. Rowe price and national banks have high returns on those funds.
This one almost has a pattern to play
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=PRMTX&t=1y

[rek]

I've been betting most all my money against the market for a while now (and it's done me very well, especially the ultrashort financials fund)...

If I had any significant amount of money, though, I'd be buying actual gold (not a gold fund, or a mining company - physical gold you can keep in your safe).

I guess you could say I've lost all faith in our government, but I see a million reasons for a recession/depression and not many reasons for anything else. We can play stupid central bank and media games for a while and maybe even delay it until after the next president takes office, but it will happen - and the longer we play games to put it off the worse it will be when it gets here.

Taking a look at our future candidates doesn't give me much faith either. We'll either get the same/increased spending on wars or we'll cut that spending a little bit and spend even more on some kind of national healthcare system. Either way: we're doomed.

[Karl]

Taking a look at our future candidates doesn't give me much faith either. We'll either get the same/increased spending on wars or we'll cut that spending a little bit and spend even more on some kind of national healthcare system. Either way: we're doomed.

We have more than enough funding to pay for a national healthcare system. As long as we're working with a capitalist government, the most logical thing to do would be to start by cutting down on government waste, cutting useless spending/programs, and putting the money we have were it's needed. If the government can show it can use the money it has well, maybe that'd be the time to increase it.

[Limey]

We have more than enough funding to pay for a national healthcare system. As long as we're working with a capitalist government, the most logical thing to do would be to start by cutting down on government waste, cutting useless spending/programs, and putting the money we have were it's needed. If the government can show it can use the money it has well, maybe that'd be the time to increase it.

As much as I don't like her fake facade, it sounds like Hillary is your man.
She seems to be big on aggregation efficiency, especially in Healtcare.

I'm all for getting insurers out of my healthcare too.