economics

John should remember that the US balance of trade deficit would be a whole lot worse if the restaurants weren't full of French and German tourists spending valuable and internationally negotiable euros on food that had been bought with soggy US dollars and cooked by people who were silly enough to take their wages in the same dubious currency.

The dollar is up a bit - presumably the European Central Banks need some more cheap paper to improve the thermal insulation of their vaults now that winter is coming around again. The fundamentals haven't changed - the US is still importing more oil than it can pay for,and borrowing money to cover the deficit.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

The dollar drops... A wonder when considering the 700 billions to be pulled out of an already empty hat ?

Unfortunately the crisis is not solved by just de-valuating the USD to 10% of its previous value.

Rene