I was just looking at currency values. I'm pretty used to seeing the US dollar to Philippine peso rate being pretty poor in recent years, but when you compare it to other nations, it really looks bad.
My wife has mentioned a few times that back home they'd prefer to receive Australian dollars to US dollars lately.
So tonight, I looked at the USA dollar rate of exchange for both Australian and Canadian dollars and was sadly surprised to see that a USA dollar isn't even worth a whole dollar anymore in those countries.
In other words, they can come here and each of their dollars is worth more than ours. I remember getting $1.40 for every USA dollar I spent in Canada and living pretty large--not anymore.
There's been some talk about the possibility of 'riots in the streets' on a thread forum here on P-L. For many years, the US dollar has singularly served as the world's "Reserve Currency"--a benchmark of stability, used as a currency measure for world critical goods, such as barrels of oil.
If the day comes when the world powers decide to switch to another currency to act as their 'Reserve Currency', the USA will really be in an even worse place than it is already, as an almost inevitable, bad chain of events, including other nations demanding payment for their US Treasury Bond purchases unfolds.
This could unfold, as they try to get their money back before they find their 'investment' in our nation isn't worth a damn dime anymore and they all line up, trying to get what they can back before there isn't anything left of value to get back.
As panics set in and the govt. tries via desperate measures to prevent nations, institutions and it's own citizens from with drawing their money in search of safer havens such as gold, silver and foreign currencies, it would most likely only further encourage the classic 'run on the bank' mentality to occur even faster.
Pension funds, from both govt and private industry, bank accounts and various retirement accounts, could become worthless, leaving the possibility of retiring and living well overseas impossible for many.
Meanwhile, the US govt. prints more and more money, without releasing any figures as to exactly how much they're printing, unlike in past decades, where by law, they were required to tell the public, creating a 'perfect storm' for fostering run away inflation.
In a few months, the govt. will stop pumping 75 billion dollars a month into the economy and we will see what that does to the perceived 'jobless economic recovery' that they say has been going on lately, as well as the effect on the 26% rise in the stock market they say has occurred over the last six months.
I pretty much stay out of political and economic 'discussions' here, as they're typically one sided and even at that, they get out of hand. I am far from being well educated in economics or politics, but the elements and events involved here involve very simple, basic and predictable fundamentals and I don't think the media is going out of its way to inform the populace and in doing so, perhaps helping us avoid a catastrophic economic train wreck.
The problems are apparent to me, but I regret that the solutions are not. Cutting Social Security, Medicaid and social programs seems to me to be like a very small start, like putting a bandaid on a critically ill patient who has a blown out artery.
