hamburgman said:
Since when is lowering the value of the dollar actually lowering your income? 85% of a consumer dollar is spent on US goods and services. Though something may be made in another country. Many times the bulk of the dollar goes to transportation, r & d and other things that are US based. So lowering a currency value doesn't necessarily increase home consumer prices by the same amount.
Never said that you said gas was at $10, my point was we don't have $10 gas and it isn't anywhere in the foreseeable future. So you tell me how that man is going to make gas go to $10? I haven't seen any policies and trends that show an administration pushing for $10 gas.
I feel those 3 people are very upstanding individuals who have done well with their jobs. Are there other people who did well for the administration? yes like Elizabeth Warren.
How come you are the only one who gets to ask questions?
Who makes up an upstanding cabinet in your opinion?
Why do trade deficits matter? If I am a moron you should easily be able to find information on the disasters that trade deficits bring around. How can everyone run trade surpluses? There a giant hole in the ocean that buys stuff and throws money out in exchange?
A)How does lowering the value of currency lower your income? Lets see if you can follow this. The $30,000 your couple made now buys $20,000 worth of good and services. How do I know this? In the late 80's and 90's I would go to western Canada and buy semi truck loads of Simmental cattle and bring them here to re-sell. If I bought $60,000 CA worth of cattle, they cost $40,000 US. Today if I were to do the same thing, go to western Canada and buy $60,000 CA worth of cattle, it would cost me.........wait for it.......anyone have a guess?........$60,000!!!!!!!!!! The purchasing power of the dollars I have in my pocket will only buy 2/3 of what it would as 10 years ago. Now to be fair, 9 cents of that 33cents was lost in years prior to your Presidents election. Since his inauguration, the value of the dollar has dropped 25cents. In other words on January 2, 2004 the dollar was worth 1.25 CA. Today it is worth $1CA. Against an average of other world currencies it is only 8% drop over that period of time. And why is it lower vs world currencies than against the Canadian currency? Because China manipulates and devalues it's currency in order to stay a certain percentage below the US dollar which skews the statistics. For all intents and purposes each dollar you had in your pocket on January 2,2009 is worth 75 cents today. Period, the end. Your $30,000 a year couple now is able to buy goods and services that were valued at $22,500 dollars when your President took office.
B) And that valuation doesn't include gas and food prices.
I haven't seen any policies and trends that show an administration pushing for $10 gas. Really? How about the sun coming up? Ever seen that? It's no more obvious.
When your President took office January 19, 2009 the average price of gas in the US was $1.85 a gallon. Two weeks ago it had doubled in less than 4 years. The last couple weeks it has come down due to lack of demand and it will continue down for a couple weeks since there will be a HUGE lack of demand stemming from the inability of travel of all kinds due to Hurricane Sandy. The price of gasoline doubled in 4 years and it hadn't since Carter was President and you don't think that has anything to do with government policy? You ask how this man is going to make gas go to $10. How did corn get to $8.24 and today $7.55? Government policy plain and simple. A full 1/3 of the US corn crop was used to produce 14 billion gallons of Ethanol in 2011. The government mandates that by 2022 36 billion gallons of Ethanol will be CONSUMED in the US not just produced. Two and a half times the amount currently being produced. Where do you think that corn is going to come from? Not here. Not enough land unless we stop feeding livestock and eating.So the Ethanol comes from countries that can produce Ethanol from sugar cane, like Brazil. Can't grow Sugar cane in much of the US because it needs about 36 inches of rain. Problem with importing it is that there is currently a .54 cent a gallon tariff on Ethanol. If that tariff (which is arbitrarily derived, it could be $54 just as easily) follows the dollar and then goes up 25% ever 4 years then it will have almost a dollar by 2012. What will that ad to your gas prices? What will Ethanol producers be paying for corn when they need more than we can grow to meet their government imposed demands? Then what will your fuel cost?
But if you want proof, I guess you need to hear it from the horses mouth. While in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Energy Secretary Steven Chu stated, and I QUOTE " Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the gasoline prices to the levels of those in Europe." Average price per gallon in France is $9.24 today. Denmark's is $9.69. He goes on to say that it would force people to buy more efficient vehicles (not sure exactly what they would buy it with since they won't have a job and their money is worthless), discourage urban sprawl (lets all live on top of each other like they do in Hong Kong and isolate rural communities and the heartland of the nation while we are at it), make renewables more competitive (Because they can't compete if allowed to fend for themselves in the free market) and limit dependence on foreign oil ( not using our own available resources is what keeps us dependent on foreign oil.) In other words he wants to change the way we live life in America. Is that what you want, too? Just say so if it is. And still you can't see any policies and trends that show this administration is pulling for $10 a gallon gas? Really?
How about these policies then. In 2007 7100 permits issued on federal lands to drill for oil. 2011 Under the Obama administration 4200. Federal lands produced less oil than they did in 2003. There is more oil and gas production in the US than ever under this administration, why? Because the Bush administration opened up large new areas both on and off shore and these permits that were issued at that time are now coming on line. The current administration approves an average of 4.7 shallow water permits a month as compared to the historical average including Republican and Democratic Presidents of 14.7 per month. An offshore drilling plan now takes 92 days to be approved, 31 more than the historical average. So far in 2012 23% of all drilling plans have been approved as compared to a historical average of 73.4%. Oil drilling platforms that once were off the Gulf coast of the US have been towed to the Brazilian coast. And you don't see any policies that would push gasoline prices to $10? Really?
How about the Keystone XL pipeline that your President has stonewalled? That would bring cheaper oil from Canada and North Dakota to refineries in the Gulf replacing oil that now goes to those refineries from............got a guess?... your Presidents buddy Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
Oh and don't forget those monetary policies that got into the pocket book of your $30,000 a year couple. Guess what currency oil is traded in? Care to take a stab? It's DOLLARS and when the value of the dollar falls the cost of oil rises. How ingenious for an administration who has DELIBERATELY sought to bring higher energy prices through out the economy through his cap and trade policies. Have you ever heard of that? It's where they assign an arbitrary tax to energy sources and suppliers based on emissions. When they put a tax of $50 on a barrel of oil who do you think will pay for it? YOU WILL.
And you are telling me that you haven't seen and trends or policies that the administration is pushing for high gas (energy of all kinds) prices? WHY don't you see it? It's not like they are trying to hide anything, this is their vision for the country. Is it yours?
C) I really don't think you had a very good answer to my question about having 3 people that did well for the administration. There are others? Why aren't you incensed that ALL of them haven't done a good job or that even one is a crook or a socialist/communist? Is 3 all you expect to do a good job. How about just not be corrupt? How about just uphold the laws they were sworn to administer? I think its a very low bar you set to say you feel Hillary Clinton has done "well with their jobs." Do you "feel" she has done well in participating with the cover up in the Libya scandal? You think allowing 4 Americans to be murdered in order to enhance Obama's chances for re-election was doing "well" ?
D) Who makes up an upstanding cabinet? I believe an upstanding cabinet would consist of those who had not admitted to evading $40,000 worth of federal taxes, those who would prosecute all the laws of this nation and not just the ones that meet his political agenda, those who were not socialist/communist or admire them in any shape or form, those who do not continue to promote this "global warming" crapola that's only scientific evidence was proven to be totally made up in order to advance a political agenda, those who want to see us energy independent and can see what a gasoline price of under $2 would do for the economy, those who are not intent on changing our country to become more like ANY other country and those who believe firmly in American exceptional-ism and would refuse to apologize for that. Would you disagree with any of that? That is so far from a description of this administration that I guess you'd have to.
E) It's late and I will get to your trade deficits tomorrow. And one thing you are right about is that it's easy. You may need a helmet. But quickly one thing I notice about you that is particularly disturbing is shown in this quote " How can everyone run trade surpluses." I am just wondering why you care what everyone else can or can't do and why aren't you more concerned about what America does and that America prospers than how everyone else does?