Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

The dollar fell the most since September against the currencies of its six biggest trading partners after Chinese officials signaled plans to diversify the nation’s $1.43 trillion of foreign exchange reserves.

The dollar fell against all 16 of the most-active currencies, declining to the weakest versus the Canadian dollar since the end of a fixed exchange rate in 1950, a 26-year low against the pound and a 23-year low versus the Australian dollar. The New York Board of Trade’s dollar index dropped to 75.21 today, the lowest since the gauge started in March 1973.

“Further weakening of the dollar is very likely,” said Teis Knuthsen, the Copenhagen-based head of foreign-exchange, fixed-income and derivative research at Danske Bank A/S, the Nordic region’s second-biggest lender. China may “diversify out of dollar holdings.”

The kicker quote from China:

“We will favor stronger currencies over weaker ones, and will readjust accordingly,” Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of China’s National People’s Congress, told a conference in Beijing. The dollar is “losing its status as the world currency,” Xu Jian, a central bank vice director, said at the same meeting.

found by Mark McCullough



  1. Billy Bob says:

    Well, there goes the market for the #1 US export, toxic financial services products.

  2. Sea Lawyer says:

    My suggestion is to learn how much fun canning vegetables can be. Salted pork lasts for a long time too.

  3. bill says:

    Trading ‘Partners’?
    Sounds like my ‘X wife’.
    All they are doing is deflating their ‘foreign exchange reserves’… ha ha ha ha ha.

    May be they should write them off

    Can you say ‘import duty’?

  4. Higghawker says:

    You reap what you sow!

  5. qsabe says:

    You reap what you elect.

  6. Improbus says:

    I, for one, welcome our impoverished Overlords!

  7. Angus says:

    Is it entirely possible that this could become a good thing? Not the falling dollar, but rather the Chinese Divestment of US debt?

  8. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    #4 – Yeah… whatever Preacher… I didn’t “sow” any International Finance seeds.

  9. Improbus says:

    Can’t wait to see what Congress does when they have to live within their means. I predict a great deal of political finger pointing ahead.

  10. RTaylor says:

    This is all about too much debt. I don’t know why any of the candidates want to inherit this potential train wreck. I hear the bears screaming recession, and we have to kiss China’s ass for years because they own a major percentage of the debt. The rest of the world wants to see us groveling because of you know who and the populous that elected him twice.

  11. Frank IBC says:

    The finance minister of Germany, which has a much higher level of public debt than the USA, is proposing to pay off the German public debt in 30 years.

  12. glenn says:

    http://www.babylontoday.com/national_debt_clock.htm

    we’re doomed…i have my escape plan 🙂

  13. John Buffam says:

    This is what happens after 7 years of Bush ignoring his country and trying to make up for what his father failed at. Ebay.com is now a bargain bin for anyone outside the USA.

  14. jlm says:

    cut taxes and print more money!
    -W

  15. J. B. Taylor says:

    Do not forget that the war in Iraq is funded by dollars which are printed for that purpose. When Bush asks for more funding for war, actual dollars are being printed to satisfy the demand. This dilutes the value of the dollar even more.

  16. Rob says:

    Funny that the most obvious harbinger of American economic doom was not mentioned in the article:

    Gisele Bundchen is bailing on the dollar. Oh NOES!!!

  17. Named says:

    16,

    And Gisele has a twin sister too!!!

  18. GigG says:

    While I’m not normally into conspiracies on the part of either the left or the right. I’ve thought for a while that the dollar was under an orchestrated attack.

    Probably China and Petro nations is my bet.

  19. domc says:

    We’re done, it’s over and it was a nice ride while it lasted. I’ve been lucky enough to have lived during the best times of America’s history and now I will watch it die a slow death. Pretty sad.

  20. Jim says:

    Bush and the Repukes complete THE DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA !!! Lets not forget that the Bush Crime Family has their Secret Redoubt in Paraguay:

    http://tinyurl.com/ykj8tj

    I suspect they have been moving Stacks of Gold Bullion South since Halliburton was given all those No-Bid Contracts !!!

    [Please use TinyUrl.com for overly long URLs. – ed.]

  21. Bigby says:

    #14 Yeah, print more money. The tried that in Germany between WWI and WWII. Read a history book and see how well that worked…

  22. watanabe says:

    I was doing some searching unrelated to this post, e.g., in the weeks running up to Bush’s 1st “election”, oil was running just over $28bbl. Consistently enough that the OPEC nations were considering upping production to keep the price from climbing higher. That gives you a clear picture of what Cheney and Dumbo have accomplished.

    Anyway – as an aside – it was just in those same weeks that Saddam Hussein announced what would have been the beginning of the end for the Petro-Dollar – saying that no more dollars would be accepted in the Food for Peace program. Just Euros. More than enough reason for neocon thugs to decide on his demise.

  23. Awake says:

    Next bumper sticker:
    ——————————-
    $100 / Barrel of Oil
    Mission Accomplished
    ——————————-

    Given that Bush / Cheney / Rice are all oil people, and the Saudis are their best friends, is it that improbable that they will be celebrating?

  24. Frank IBC says:

    Awake –

    Can you do arithmetic? If the dollar is collapsing, then that means that the price of oil in dollars is not climbing at nearly the rate it appears to be.

  25. Frank IBC says:

    What is this “Food for Peace” program you’re talking about, Watanabe?

  26. Osmodious says:

    Love how everyone thinks that this whole ‘debt crisis’ took the financial industry by surprise…why the hell else would they have had the gov change the bankruptcy laws shortly before the ‘crisis’ began?

    Puhlease…the banks will all get their money, unlike in the past where debt could be charged off. People won’t be able to afford gas, or food, or housing…but their income (if they still retain employment) will still serve someone (that would be the bank that garnishes their wages). Won’t help the economy, but those all important banks will still be alright (plus with all the income they get from their fees these days, they’ll actually be making PROFIT!).

  27. JimR says:

    Stop fretting. I’ve lived with a 60-70 cent $Can for most of my life, and it doesn’t mean squat if you buy and sell within your own country where your dollar is still worth a dollar. Your dollar is about 90 cents Canadian now… no big deal. Get used to buying your own US goods, and you’ll be just fine.

  28. mark says:

    27. “Get used to buying your own US goods, and you’ll be just fine.”

    Ummm. If only we could.

  29. Awake says:

    24 – Frank IBC -Do you have any common sense? Are you a victim of ‘new math?’

    Regardless of the value of dollars, it still costs you and me dollars to pay for things. So you better be making more $$$ to pay for the increasing price of things when measured in dollars.

    If the price of an object changes at the same rate as earnings, then it remains constant. But if the price of an object increases faster than earnings, then it is more expensive.

  30. jlm says:

    “Get used to buying your own US goods”

    damn I wish we could, but we get everything from China, who is now feeding us lead paint and GHB


1

Bad Behavior has blocked 5581 access attempts in the last 7 days.