When I was a lad, before I took up my studies in the United States I crossed the Soviet Union on the Great Siberian Railway. I came away from the trip astonished by the lack of technological ability in the Soviet Union. The samovar on the train worked okay but hot tea was as far as it went:
The International Tourist Agency, Intourist, which supervised my journey (I was not a member of any group tour) set me up in designated tourist class hotels that cost the Earth, one hundred dollars a night was a lot in 1981, and I found myself sleeping in third rate accommodations, leaky double glazed windows, cold running water only in Siberia (!) in October(!!). It was the equivalent of an eight dollar a night fleapit on my trip across the US earlier that year. So I came away from the eight day train journey wondering what all the fuss was about. In California there were endless protests over nuclear weapons, and fear that we would be overrun by the godless communists was second only to fear that Ronald Reagan might unleash the bomb first. I stood on the sidelines and wondered what all the fuss was about. I figured anyone who couldn't build a decent hotel stood a very good chance of blowing themselves up first, before nuking their neighbors. Chernobyl proved me right.
The International Tourist Agency, Intourist, which supervised my journey (I was not a member of any group tour) set me up in designated tourist class hotels that cost the Earth, one hundred dollars a night was a lot in 1981, and I found myself sleeping in third rate accommodations, leaky double glazed windows, cold running water only in Siberia (!) in October(!!). It was the equivalent of an eight dollar a night fleapit on my trip across the US earlier that year. So I came away from the eight day train journey wondering what all the fuss was about. In California there were endless protests over nuclear weapons, and fear that we would be overrun by the godless communists was second only to fear that Ronald Reagan might unleash the bomb first. I stood on the sidelines and wondered what all the fuss was about. I figured anyone who couldn't build a decent hotel stood a very good chance of blowing themselves up first, before nuking their neighbors. Chernobyl proved me right. After we got married my wife wanted to take a honeymoon on a beach in Greece (a vacation desire outstanding I'm afraid) but I said let's rent a car and tour Eastern Europe. So we did for three weeks and three thousand miles banishing all desires for a paltry beach. If you've never seen a horse sit on it's haunches the Hungarian plains are the place to see it:
Since those heady post-Iron Curtain days Eastern Europe has boomed. And now it's going bust. Ukraine and Hungary are the first to fall, the Russian Stock Exchange has had to shut down trading repeatedly and the International Monetary Fund is asking for opinions on what if it decides to essentially print money to save Eastern Europe and who knows who else. This rumor has made news because the IMF has only ever previously issued Special Drawing Rights once before when the Soviet Union vaporized. Then things went back to normal and the IMF begged money from member states and distributed it as loans helping to keep Third World countries poor and indebted.
Since those heady post-Iron Curtain days Eastern Europe has boomed. And now it's going bust. Ukraine and Hungary are the first to fall, the Russian Stock Exchange has had to shut down trading repeatedly and the International Monetary Fund is asking for opinions on what if it decides to essentially print money to save Eastern Europe and who knows who else. This rumor has made news because the IMF has only ever previously issued Special Drawing Rights once before when the Soviet Union vaporized. Then things went back to normal and the IMF begged money from member states and distributed it as loans helping to keep Third World countries poor and indebted. The problem now is that the IMF is trying to help out a whole tier of second world countries, known more politely as "emerging nations." Actually they had emerged with democracy and functioning economies and everything into the light of the first world sun, but then suddenly everything went poof! Led by the spiralling US economy whose lead they had originally imitated by creating fake wealth, all their collective debt that has funded their emergence has started to come due. And guess what? That's right! They can't pay! Amazing isn't it? Their currencies are even more worthless than Dollars or even Euros, their commodities have lost all value and we in the First World are too busy losing our shirts to spend time and money in their craft markets.
Dominique Strauss Kahn, IMF Director (BBC Website)
This handsome figure of a Frenchman was busy getting spanked a couple of weeks ago for abusing his power by having sex with a subordinate and then helping her get a massive severance package when she went to work in a nice London Bank. He has apologized, his wife has publicly forgiven him for his one night stand (deluded woman) and now Strauss Kahn is facing the slightly more complex problem of how to bail out 1.6 trillion dollars worth of debt with 200 billion dollars in the bank. Turkey is already making belligerent noises about how they won't accept IMF Imperialism, but like I point out at the local level, if you have a mortgage you are a serf.
Here's the thing. Like the US, the IMF has the authority in its charter to issue bonds and even to print the equivalent of money. Like the US the IMF has a burden of debt it simply does not have the money to pay off. So, like the US, either it lets the countries fail, it prints money, or it issues bonds. Serious economists say the US should sell bonds, even as they forget to ask who will buy them. If the IMF is anything to go by, printing money will be the only solution short of total bankruptcy of all involved. Call this a dry run to illustrate the future of your currency...
Who said we in the US can't learn from foreigners, and damned Frenchmen to boot?
6 comments:
The last time I crossed the border into the USofA, I purchased some US$'s, and when I returned to Canada, I decided not to "cash them" (into Cdn$), so I have a small horder of US cash, perhaps as much as $100. with our Canadian $$ dropping to a mere pitance, I thought I was going to become rich with this US$100. and now you are telling me that it is becoming worthless ¿
Not yet.Right now you could buy half a Canadian Tar Sandpit with your $100. Ha, but after we inaugurate Barack Obama as our fearless leader, then people want to know what will happen to the US dollar. I am strongly hoping for a few more smoke and mirror years to see me safely into my grave, then let all the shenaigans come home to roost. More likely every single country takes one step backwards: Africa to the Stone Age, South America to the Bronze Age, Eastern Europe and Poor Asia to the Horse and Cart, everyone else to some measure of the Golden Age of Steam. Then we all have to be nice to each other. What a drag.
It's all relative. The US will remain the world's reserve currency as long as the rest of the world is more screwed up than the US. Do you think China would rather hold its horde in Rubles or Euros?
You know, instead of having just a tourist economy, make the Keys a tax free zone, like RTP or Monaco. That would vitalize the economy locally. Really should have succeeded in the 1990's during the blockade.
Ohh..And what are good old Raul and Fidel going to do with their finacial backers relegated to the stone/bronze/horse and cart age? RUH-ROH!!... Perhaps they'll get on the horn to the Bally's people : "Hey guys, Cuba here, remember all the fancy, American, extremely lucrative, mafioso casinos we used to have?...yeah, about that..."
I wonder whatever happened to those rumored casino plans for the new and massive Spottswood convention center tat lost its funding? Perhaps we should ask Monaco for a loan?
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