Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24
At These Levels, Buying Silver Is Like Getting It At $5 In 2003 - 28th Oct 24
Nvidia Numero Uno Selling Shovels in the AI Gold Rush - 28th Oct 24
The Future of Online Casinos - 28th Oct 24
Panic in the Air As Stock Market Correction Delivers Deep Opps in AI Tech Stocks - 27th Oct 24
Stocks, Bitcoin, Crypto's Counting Down to President Donald Pump! - 27th Oct 24
UK Budget 2024 - What to do Before 30th Oct - Pensions and ISA's - 27th Oct 24
7 Days of Crypto Opportunities Starts NOW - 27th Oct 24
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future - 27th Oct 24
This Points To Significantly Higher Silver Prices - 27th Oct 24
US House Prices Trend Forecast 2024 to 2026 - 11th Oct 24
US Housing Market Analysis - Immigration Drives House Prices Higher - 30th Sep 24
Stock Market October Correction - 30th Sep 24
The Folly of Tariffs and Trade Wars - 30th Sep 24
Gold: 5 principles to help you stay ahead of price turns - 30th Sep 24
The Everything Rally will Spark multi year Bull Market - 30th Sep 24
US FIXED MORTGAGES LIMITING SUPPLY - 23rd Sep 24
US Housing Market Free Equity - 23rd Sep 24
US Rate Cut FOMO In Stock Market Correction Window - 22nd Sep 24
US State Demographics - 22nd Sep 24
Gold and Silver Shine as the Fed Cuts Rates: What’s Next? - 22nd Sep 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks:Nothing Can Topple This Market - 22nd Sep 24
US Population Growth Rate - 17th Sep 24
Are Stocks Overheating? - 17th Sep 24
Sentiment Speaks: Silver Is At A Major Turning Point - 17th Sep 24
If The Stock Market Turn Quickly, How Bad Can Things Get? - 17th Sep 24
IMMIGRATION DRIVES HOUSE PRICES HIGHER - 12th Sep 24
Global Debt Bubble - 12th Sep 24
Gold’s Outlook CPI Data - 12th Sep 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

U.S. Dollar Future and a World Currency

Currencies / US Dollar Oct 28, 2009 - 09:29 AM GMT

By: Thomas_R_Eddlem

Currencies

Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleSome very big questions

With the USD fluttering around 76 on the US Dollar currency basket index, the USDX it’s a good time to pontificate on its near term future, and longer term future. Gold’s big rally since 2002 begs a lot of major questions.


The US is now flirting with an immediate debt of around $14 trillion (US Treasury bonds etc, and not including future liabilities like Medicare). The US now passes a key level of indebtedness considered to be a first stage of crisis. That puts US current debt at 100 pct of GDP. Just this week, the US needs to sell a record $130 plus billion of debt, for one week. The US is running a fiscal deficit of about $2 trillion a year, and for the total government budget that amounts to 40% of its budget. Imagine trying to run your own personal life that way.

US debt by several key measures

Clearly a turning point is being reached. The Chinese, who have now accumulated an astounding $2.2 trillion of foreign reserves, have been complaining all year that the US must stop the massive overspending. But, ironically, China, Japan, the EU, the Mid East, even Russia and especially the Asian exporters like Korea, Taiwan, etc have also banded together last week calling the fall of the USD a disaster for their exporters. They banded together to support the USD in the last two weeks.

When the USD fell two weeks ago below 77 on the USDX for example, the Far Asian central banks banded together to support the USD and it briefly went back above 77, and now is around 76.5. Message to the currency markets: don’t plan on a big USD sell off yet.

However, if you were to then look at total current US debt, to include public debt like mortgages and credit cards, corporate debt, and also especially municipal and state debt (current debt is that which is paid every month with interest) the US debt to GDP grows to roughly 400 pct of US GDP. Interpretation: well if the US ‘earns’ $14 trillion a year, it has to service debt on the aggregate of $56 trillion a year. Clearly on that measure, the US is just on the verge of a financial default across the public and private sectors. If interest rates start to rise, look out.

In fact, the US Federal government had to issue a tremendous amount of new debt (treasuries etc) in the second quarter of 09, basically bailing out the entire defaulting world banking system. The US used a combination of quantitative easing, and actually buying its own debt for half of its issuance. The Chinese went ballistic immediately and have been warning the Fed not to do that or else. Treasury Secretary Geithner flew to China to explain. The US supposedly backed off buying its own bonds at that point. But the clock is ticking.

USD crisis when?

Now then, the question becomes what is the near term and midterm future of the USD. Will there be a big USD crisis sooner or later? The huge interventions to support the USD this year by the world export nations’ central banks muddied the waters quite a bit. They are supporting the USD in the FX markets regardless of this massive new deterioration in US finances. Reason? They cannot tolerate a further collapse of their export economies. They are afraid of riots in China for example over that. China and Japan had a 30% drop in exports YOY in September 09. Supposedly, things have modestly improved.

The point is, that the rich export nations such as China, India, Japan, Germany all have a lot of skin in the USD game, and cannot tolerate a significant drop in the USD exchange rates which makes their exports more expensive. But alternatively, they also cannot tolerate the rapidly and seriously deteriorating US fiscal situation on all fronts.

Delicate balance

One gets the impression of a very delicate balance keeping the USD together for the moment, and the question is when will that balance fall apart?

I know we all have heard about the ‘imminent USD demise’ for decades, especially from 2002 to around 2007/8 with gold rising by a factor of over 3 times. And, if you have followed the USD story since around 1971, when Nixon took the USD off the gold standard, and the inflation that followed in the 70’s, the ‘imminent demise of the USD’ story has been around for decades.

But this time is different, very much so, with a US fiscal deficit now at 40% of government expenditures.

But the USD has still hung in there. What is different this time? Could the USD merely have a ‘controlled burn’ and gradually devalue, and not see a catastrophe in the FX markets? Perhaps the USD falling over a period of several years to 40 on the USDX?

Or, is there enough fiscal pressure now for an accident, and a chaotic fall in the USD in the FX markets and an assured world currency crisis that follows? IE if the USD had a chaotic devaluation, the rest of the world’s currencies, especially the Yen, would have heart attacks at the same time.

In other words, a chaotic USD collapse probably means a Yen collapse, and other currency collapses as well, and God only knows what kind of chaotic unwinding of carry trades?

And to add more to the mix, with the USD now becoming the new carry trade favorite, ala Japan with the Yen carry trade, how much more room is there for the USD to hold together???

Will that carry trade rally markets again for two more years, perhaps after a correction first in financial markets at this juncture?

Asking the right questions is the key for all researchers, a fact known to all sciences.

A last carry trade rally? A long question

Is the carry trade the way to reignite the old USD centric trade/export system? Even if only for a last gasp? And, then a new last gasp financial market bubble of mammoth proportions because the wealthier and fiscally healthier export countries such as China, Germany, (I have to kind of exclude Japan from the healthy category but Japan too, as I consider the Yen a USD sister currency and Japan always supports the USD) band together to support the USD till they figure something else out, which leads to another financial collapse of even greater proportions, perhaps leading to the final demise of the USD and a total collapse of all financial markets in the world, making the stock crashes of the Great Depression child’s play by comparison… and causing such chaos and angst that the world then must adopt a new world currency merely to get food on the table?

Every major nation calling either for a new currency or a new world order

And, in the last year, every major nation has either stated that a new one world currency is desired and or also a one world government. How the hell did that consensus gather so fast? Previously, only about two countries even talked about that publicly; now they all are saying this at the same time? There are HUGE changes afoot. Then this dubious Copenhagen treaty which will create a quasi world government/economy with enforceable laws…

We continue to ponder the probability of a USD crisis with fast onset, or the alternative gradual USD decline which everyone hopes for. Regardless, the demise of the USD will change the entire world.

By Christopher Laird
PrudentSquirrel.com

Copyright © 2009 Christopher Laird

Chris Laird has been an Oracle systems engineer, database administrator, and math teacher. He has a BS in mathematics from UCLA and is a certified Oracle database administrator. He has been an avid follower of financial news since childhood. His father is Jere Laird, former business editor of KNX news AM 1070, Los Angeles (ret). He has grown up immersed in financial news. His Grandmother was Alice Widener, publisher of USA magazine in the 60's to 80's, a newsletter that covered many of the topics you find today at the preeminent gold sites. Chris is the publisher of the Prudent Squirrel newsletter, an economic and gold commentary.

Christopher Laird Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Comments

Rob
17 Nov 10, 06:45
What to with my usd

Should I sell my usd back to aud or should I keep my use please answer my question as I have invested the money I was suppose to bye a house with thanks rob.


Rick
18 Nov 10, 00:06
What To Do With The U.S. Dollar

Rob: At this juncture, no one actually knows what to do. My personal opinion is that the U.S. dollar is set to devalue further, but most other currencies will fare comparatively worse.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in