8/30/2007

Tumbling Taco-flavored Currency

As an important US holiday approaches (Labor Day), a reflection is in order of the extremely dangerous footing we find our nation in, and the predicament that a nation of laborers finds itself in. Workers find their situation extremely tenuous, especially in light of the corporate sell-out of the American worker in favor of Asians, aided by USGovt incentives and Wall Street cheers. Our workers became accustomed to the betrayal during the 1980 decade with the Pacific Rim powered by the Asian Tigers. Why cannot economists see that a decade of Vietnam War inflation, a Johnson-Kennedy Guns & Butter agenda, and USDollar benefit from high Volcker interest rates (leading to Plaza Accord to bring down the US$), resulted in a colossal cost to the US Middle Class and workers??? They took more blows with the 1990 NAFTA betrayal, as Mexican assembly plants cropped up across the border. The current Chinese and Indian outsource movement is yet another betrayal to the American worker. Outsource the job, enjoy the lower cost to the corporate profit margin, and send the US employees into the street, especially if they are near retirement with pensions.

Let us all celebrate Labor Day, marred by a skein of betrayals. What is needed is a national program to put Americans to work. Instead, we fight an endless winless war abroad, in support of private syndicates who profit heavily. How about a national mandate and high priority initiative to rebuild the US bridges, access roads to major cities, tunnels, railroads, sewer pipes, water pipes, natural gas pipes, crude oil pipes, airports, and port facilities? And yes, forbid Halliburton and other connected crooks to participate in any and all bidding? FDRoosevelt initiated numerous plans. Why not now? High speed trains are common in France, Germany, and Japan, soon to China. The US lags badly.

In fact, one can conclude that the US is morphing into a bizarre Third World nation with a powerful military and a banking system well equipped to abuse the power extended from printing unbacked money marked as the world reserve currency.

[...] The Mexican Peso tumbled in July, and has continued lower in August. The financial conditions behind their FOREX revenues from their energy account are being revealed. The MexPeso has fallen from 9.25 to the 9.0 level, well below its 50-day moving average, without recovery. As the USDollar falters against the euro currency, the MexPeso does also. So the MexPeso has faltered even worse relative to world currencies. European exports rise in price to Mexicans. Currency markets sense trouble. The Mexican economy suffers from a significant decline in cash transfers (remittances) from workers in the US sending money home to families. This was addressed in my work as evidence of lost home construction jobs. The volume of money involved in remittances exceeds the total foreign direct investment in Mexico, an alarming data point, so not a small sum. This cramps consumer spending and small business investment, and leads to wider poverty. Count that as another contagion from the US housing crisis, of course denied.

The situation in Mexico continues to deteriorate. As their nation falls further into outright chaos, three key questions arise: 1) What happens to the reliable supply of crude oil to the United States, even as Cantarell sees further decline? 2) What happens to the plans for implementation of the North American Alliance, the economic merger of the US, Canada, and Mexico? 3) What happens to foreign mining rights to Mexican properties, under possible threat of confiscation or hiked royalty demands? These are central questions addressed in the August Hat Trick Letter report.

Source: "US/Mex Failed System and Failed State" by Jim Willie

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