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I no little about economics but this is what I understand.
This issue has been brought up as a reason for the invasion of Iraq as Saddam was going to start selling oil in Euros instead of US dollars. Iran is threatening to do the same. The Saudi Arabia and OPEC sell oil in US dollars thus forcing everyone to buy US dollars in order to purchase oil. If OPEC switched to the Euro, the US is in big trouble.
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I think Lanny trotted this out a while back - it is ridiculous really, but economic forces may end up moving the market in this direction to some extent. However, given that both the US and China will likely want to trade oil in US$ for the forseeable future, I think it will be a peripheral drag on the currency, not a catclysmic event.
I think the insider sales simply reflect a common view that we are at the end of a bull run and stock prices are high right now.
The big problem the US has IMO is that the currency float they have with the world implies a huge call on their productive capacity and standard of living. If you think about it, US$ outside the US simply indicate that the US owes the world hard goods that their economy will have a hard time producing without huge inflation. The US$ will need to fall when these notes start coming home, US imports will dry up (huring Canada) and US exports will shoot through the roof (also hurting Canada in areas where we compete).
This is the area that Harper has absolutely driven me nuts of late. He has to be smart enough to see the problem, but he has been busy putting our business relationship with China in the toilet and putting more eggs in the sinking ship, to badly mix metaphors.