It's a perfectly good response...

...but here...

Chip, read stuff!

There, now he's "enlightened"...

Dill, if you were actually trying to persuade me, you might try to do better. Anyone can say anything but why would I believe them without some cogent rationale as to why they have arrived at that conclusion. It sounds like you don't have one and perhaps are the one in need of some reading. Op-eds in whatever conservative hating paper you like do not change the realities of economics.

Perhaps someone with a good, non-biased understanding of economics could compare the dollar to other leading currencies. Is the US dollar uniquely weak of late? If so, then I think one needs to look at domestic fiscal policy and gov't spending (did someone say "Bush"?) for an explanation.

Biased assertion, unsupported by the aforementioned understanding of international monetary principles: Bush & Co. have wrecked the US economy long-term, surging stock markets notwithstanding.

You're right...!

The Federal Reserve Bank bears no small share of the responsibility over the standing of US currency.

And the Chairman of the Fed serves at the pleasure of...whom?

Oh yea, Shrub. But this is the No Accountability Left Behind administration, so we'll let him off the hook for this too I guess.

I wouldn't blame Bush - the weakness in the dollar is due to a variety of factors, that have been around longer than Bush.....

look at the American economy - consumers have been spending like drunken sailors (or Irishmen), leading to massive debt buildups. Personal savings in the US are anaemic. We essentially mortgaged the country to buyers of US debt. The usual up and down of currencies is now being leveraged against us by the fact that we owe massive debts.

China announced today that it is going to "start favoring stronger currencies over the weaker" - ie they're gonna start dumping the US dollar and buying euros, sterling, the Canadina dollar etc etc

The dollar lost about 1% of its value overnight - losts of foreign money is going to start fleeing US equity markets soon......wouldn't be surprised to see a major correction before Christmas.

The chickens are coming home to roost......

Oh, and Bush hasn't made that worse, to the tune of a TRILLION dollars, with his wars?

And massive tax cuts that went mostly to the very, very wealthy?

I think the US was heading towards this problem before Bush. In the Clinton years, personal savings rates dropped down to almost nothing. But the governmental budget had improved to the point of surplus. Now the savings rate is lousy (or nonexistent) for both individuals and the government.

I think the general public has to take part of the blame. People don't like being told that they actually have to pay for things, but they also don't like program cuts (at least those that benefit from them), so it's politically easier to borrow than to increase taxes or reduce spending. But leadership means laying out responsible choices and vetoing irresponsible ones, and W has done nothing on that score. He and his base keep pushing for tax cuts when they had no idea of how to pay for the ones they already enacted. It's infuriating that only now has Bush made any gesture concerning fiscal responsibility, and it's on programs that people probably would be willing to pay for if asked (such as S-CHIP).