An amusing chain of events that actually got me thinking about such a topic, the Youtube syndrome. This is pretty much when you watch a certain video on Youtube, and then watch one of the "Related Videos", and then another, and you get to a completely different topic than what you got onto the website for. Scariest thing is that I can't remember most of the videos in that process, I can't remember what I went on to YT for, all I know is that I watched a video of someones Xbox getting RRoD, and then came upon the state if the US Dollar.  I'm not usually interested in economics but I do find the situation interesting. Ok then, onto the meat.

   If this is too long for you to want to read, or if you aren't interested in the subject/don't care for the videos.. Get the hell outta mah thread before posting else I get mah shotgun.

   Yes, so I got watching someone explaining the decline in very simple terms, and only accounting one cause to the situation. I've known, near everyone has known, that the US Dollar is falling (i.e the recent thread about it falling below the Swiss Franc). However, on watching some more videos, showing presentations by economists, people's opinions and so on and so forth, I had no idea that the problem was so severe.

   Here is an interesting video I ran into with someone presenting financial, political and geo-political information to aid investors in developing sound alternatives for their portfolios in uncertain times. It begins referencing how far the value the dollar has fallen in comparison with certain points in the past 100 years, which is a very blunt comparison that shocked me some. Another key point in my opinion is how it says other countries are cutting their dollar holdings, Russia from 70% to 40% or how China is cutting back on its purchases of US treasuries. It goes on to extrapolate how many dollars would be dumped onto the market if countries keep diversifying away from the dollar. Of course this would lead to negative effects to the value of the dollar. As more countries diversify away from the dollar they will slow or stop buying US treasuries. In that case, who will buy them? The price would have to lowered leading to more of the same.

   There's also a point on how the world is moving away from the dollar as its reserve currency. Oil producers, Russia and China trying to re-denominate global oil transactions into Euros - other countries have already done so with their oil transactions. Now, apparantly there are enough Euros in circulation to becoem the new world reserve currency.

   On the video link above, look at the user's other videos as they are all from the same presentation and are pretty interesting views (especially the one about the rise of China IMO).

   Here is another interesting video IMO about the situation that focuses on the US deficits. There is also a decent analogy in there about the situation with the US and the rising Asian countries. One person in the video says that the US 'will' face a great recession/depression and will have to in order to start recovering, the longer this is held off the more extreme it will be.

   Here is a recent video of G.W. Bush addressing the state of the economy. Make of that what you will.

So yea, what do you think of where the US dollar and economy is now, and the direction it is heading? I think the strategies Bush is putting forward are just going to keep the economy (and I use this word very loosely) 'stable' until his presidency is over. Military spending in my opinion is probably paid by the US printing more money, which is just digging and digging into a hole. What political changes will effect the situation? What needs to be done?

And yes, the cake was a lie 

~WB

Damn you. I clicked expecting the cake. TEh CAK3!

Links in.

Well even Bush had a reason for wanting to unify the dollar with the peso and canadain dollar to make the "Amero".

Here's an interesting editorial in the wall street journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120579622849343477.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

and here is the greenspan article he reffers to once or twice.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/edbdbcf6-f360-11dc-b6bc-0000779fd2ac.html

We are already in a recession.

i watched the "collapsing dollar" video and, while it presents facts, its presentation is extremely biased.

it sounds more like a sales pitch at some wealth conference. after watching the whole thing, i believe that it is. the website links to a fund that advocates investments in gold.

^ What would you say are the implications of those facts then Lingyis?

well, i would draw the same conclusion as the presenter, but that wouldn't mean the presenter isn't purposefully leaving out pertinent information. such as, relevent inflation rates, purchasing power of the US dollar, living standards in the US, etc. he picked out all the data that supports the point he's trying to drive through--the dollar is weakening, and you should buy gold.

that is what i mean by his very biased presentation. he presented no arguments to the contrary whatsoever. it's typical of a presentation at wealth conferences, i.e. a sales pitch. i'm not necessarily disagreeing with him, but my point is just that you need to be careful when you're going through a presentation like his.

i am generally bearish on the dollar--but that was back like a couple months ago. these days, i don't even know where the dollar belongs. it's that uncertain.

Oops my first and second link were the same, the second one now goes to the appropriate video. That link goes into standards of living, and other videos of the first links account go into purchasing power and inflation rates. The video in the link is an extract.